Blue Star
by Feniiku
Summary: /loose adaption of Sonic 1 and 2\\ A young hedgehog frees a set of magical stones from a machine, and in an instant, his world is transformed. /Read and review please\\
1. Birth of a Legend

**Blue Star: A loose Sonic 1, 2, 3S&K adaption**

_Disclaimer: _Karen, Maverick, Lucy, dobermann, rooster and pigeon © Amy "Feniiku" Jeferies. All other characters © SEGA/Sonic Team

_Author's note: _This has aspects of the Fleetway STC comics, is loosely based on the Mega Drive/Genesis games, but is predominantly my views and perceptions. I'm trying to make it acceptable to everyone else, so I hope you like it.

Please leave reviews so that I know that it's being read. Constructive critisism please. I am working on more to this story, so don't be too picky about this short chapter. It's only an introduction really anyway.

Thanks. Anyway, enjoy. (BTW, the story won't get to the Sonic 1 adaption for a couple of chapters while I set the scene.)

* * *

Part 1: Birth of a legend

A single, blue star shone in the sky, making the fact that the sky was pitch black more obvious. It wasn't cloudy. It was just that the stars and the moon refused to show this night. Many Mobians saw this as a bad omen, and stayed inside. Superstition said that the blue star was a cause of very bad luck, and if you were caught in its light you'd be bad luck to yourself and everyone around you. Some dismissed it, but very few took the risk of going outside anyway.

Even children due to be born would wait a day for the blue star to go. It was like the superstition had been imprinted into the Mobian genes. But one child didn't want to wait.

The blue star shone through the hospital window, illuminating the young child as he lay curled up in his mother's arms. The hedgehog had been born with all his quills already formed, and this had undeniably caused difficulty. The quills were stiff and sharp, and had torn his mother up inside. While he lay in her arms, bathed in the light of the blue star, his mother died.

"I asked her if she was certain she wanted the blinds to let the light through. She wouldn't back down on it." a sharp male voice said.

"It's her choice" a second voice. Slightly deeper, and another male.

"It was her choice. Her child's bad luck!" the first voice spat

"Oh psshh. It's just a dumb superstition." a third voice. Soft in tone, and female.

"What do we do with the kid?" a fourth voice. Warbly and slightly older than the others. Another female.

"We get someone to look after it. Any volunteers?" the third voice asked.

A silence.

"Oh don't all jump at once. I'll do it." the third voice gave an annoyed sigh

"Can we shut the blinds first?" the first voice spoke with a hint of apprehension.

"If you must, you chicken." the third voice growled.

"Hey!" the second voice protested.

"Sorry George." the third voice apologised.

The doctor and nurses stood near the door, not willing to go near the light from the star. The nurse who had decided to look after the child walked over to the window, and twisted the blinds to shut the light out. The florescent lights were able to light the room fully now. The blue star's light had been too strong to be blotted out by the electric lights, and as such the staff didn't want to go close to it. The doctor was a dobermann, he was the first to have spoken. There was the rooster, who had been named as George, he was one of the nurses. The other nurse standing away from the window and the dead hedgehog on the bed was a pigeon, and the one who had simply dismissed the superstition was a panther.

She reached down and lifted up the baby hedgehog, scooping him carefully into her arms. She glared at the others until the doctor ran over to help sort out the child. He glanced at the dead mother, who seemed completely peaceful, unaware of the pain she must have gone through. He looked at the panther, and frowned.

"Why would you take a cursed child on?"

"He won't survive otherwise" she frowned "And there is no 'curse'. It's just folklore"

"Then how come his mother died already"

"Simple freak accident."

"Yeah…. Right…"

"What kind of doctor are you? You'd just leave this child to die?"

"Karen…"

"NO. Look, I don't care about any curse. He needs care and a home and you aren't offering him _ANYTHING_." She growled threateningly at him.

"Karen, I didn't mean it like that." The dobermann bent his ears back "I mean… What about Maverick? Would he accept that?"

Karen frowned. Her son was known for not easily accepting change. Well she'd made up her mind. He was going to accept it whether he liked it or not. She clutched the baby hedgehog closer to her and flattened her ears. Her yellow eyes focused on the Doberman's brown ones.

"He'll accept it. This is my child now."

"He's not even a cat species!"

"Doesn't matter. Now if you don't mind, I'll take my leave."

"Karen!"

"Oh I quit. I can't work with a bunch of superstitious fools like you" she turned to go. The pigeon and the rooster stood aside. "Good bye."

She stormed out the door, snatching up a blanket to wrap the tiny ball of spikes in. She held him closer to her chest as she walked out of the hospital, grabbing her coat. No one tried to stop her. No one wanted to risk having to go out in the light of the blue star. If the panther wanted to, that was her problem.

A cold wind was blowing sharply as she stepped out into the eerily lit night. She pulled her coat on and tucked her new wards inside it, clutching him like he was the most precious thing she could own. She ran down the road, heading into the rural area of the Green Hill Zone. She didn't have any vehicle to travel in but she preferred to run anyway. A faint boom echoed, and the quivering ball of spikes in her arms twisted his head to listen to it. A small smile was visible, and Karen smiled back at him. She looked up to see a streamed cloud from a sonic jet. The pilot must've been as dismissive of the 'curse' as her. It was the only aircraft she'd seen that day. The little hedgehog's interest in the sound it made gave her and idea for his name.

"I think you can be called Sonic."

A small sigh from the child as he rolled up again, and she smiled softly. He may have made an ugly cub, but she couldn't help but feel for him. Maybe they got their superstition backwards. She felt lucky to have him. He was lucky that she was in there. Anyone else would have left him to die, despite their 'doctors' oath'. Stupid superstitions. Some believed that the heavens were warring when the blue star showed. And maybe they were. But she didn't care about that. What the heavens did was their concern, not hers.

She reached her house, and opened the door. It was a modest cottage on the very edge of the Zone, and had a small flower garden in front of it. She walked indoors and had to step aside again to avoid a tackle by her five year old cub. Maverick raised his arms, demanding a hug, and she sighed. An old owl hobbled out of the lounge and glanced at the bulge in Karen's jacket.

"Well he's been as good as he normally is.."

"What did he do this time?" Karen sighed, glancing at her cub, who flattened his ears and hid behind the babysitter.

"Smashed a vase, threw his train out the window, and complained about you always working nights…"

"Well the last isn't a problem. I quite today" She held the bulge in her jacket protectively as it squeaked

"Oh?" the owl tilted her head "May I ask what you've brought home with you?"

"Sonic…" Karen slid her jacket back to pass her the bundle of blankets and spikes.

"This…. He's newborn? Since when did baby hedgehogs have their quills already?" she tilted her head at the youngster, who fidgeted and unrolled a bit, allowing them a tiny view of his face.

"They usually don't. But those quills of his killed his mother. He needed someone to look after him. His dad died a month or so ago. That's what his mother said when she came in." Karen sook her head "Only child born tonight. The others saw him as cursed and wouldn't go near him."

"I don't blame them. I don't trust the blue star myself" she ruffled her feathers.

"I know. You can stay here overnight anyway." Karen took her new child from the babysitter.

"Mummy? Wha's curst?" Maverick peered at her from behind the owl "Wha's hetchock?"

"Don't worry Mavvy, they're nothing" Karen sighed, then smiled "This is your new little brother, Sonic"

"Yay brother!" Maverick bounced out from behind the babysitter, forgetting he was in trouble "Can I hol' him?"

"Hahahahah, no sweety. He's new and fragile". '_not to mention covered in some wicked points_' she thought. "Maybe when he's older, okay?"

"Umm….. Okay!"

"How long are you going to look after him?" the owl hooted

"As long as he needs me"

"Okay"

The owl hobbled back into the lounge again, and pulled the sofa-bed out, sorting it out for her overnight stay. Karen may not have cared about the curse, but old Lucy certainly did. She really appreciated that Karen was letting her stay overnight. While she was busy with that the panther looked at Maverick. The cub was bouncing around excitedly, trying to get a better look at his new little brother.

"Oh Mavvy, aren't you supposed to be in bed?"

"Noooooo….."

"Maverick…"

The cub squeaked and ran up the stairs, giggling. Karen smiled. That had gone better than she could have hoped. She held Sonic close again as he curled up, sleeping, and walked up the stairs. She didn't doubt that it was going to be hard looking after Sonic for a while, but she'd get used to it.

* * *

TBC 

So yeah. Sonic's raised by a panther. XD hence his catty behaviour in my stories. More to come later.


	2. Childhood Troubles

-1**Blue Star: A loose Sonic 1, 2, 3S&K adaption**

_Disclaimer: _Karen, Maverick, Tabitha, Tiffany, Lucifer, the leopard, the monitor lizard, the sharks and the girl hedgehog © Amy "Feniiku" Jeferies. All other characters © SEGA/Sonic Team

_Author's note:_ Please leave reviews so that I know that it's being read. Constructive critisism please.

Thanks to the people who reviewed the first chapter. I appreciate it Ah. And the deer named Tiffany only appears for a short time, but she'll probably turn up again later.

Yay big chapters and bullying prone Sonic XD

* * *

Part 2: Childhood troubles

"NyaaNyaa! Can't catch me!"

"Yeah I can!"

The little girl panther ran around the field, chasing her big brother. They laughed and she tackled his heels, bringing him down. He tumbled over onto his back, and got his quills stuck in the ground. His sister flopped over his stomach and laughed at him as he pouted.

"Hey! Not fair!"

"Yeah it is!"

"No it's not!"

"Is!" his sister got off and helped pull him up to his feet.

"Ah you cheated Tabby!"

"Did not!"

"did too!" Sonic pouted "Pinning me down is cheating!"

"Is not! You shouldn' be so spiky!"

"The groun' shouldn' wan' to EAT ME!"

"Hey Sonic! Hey Tabitha!"

"Eeee! Tiffany!"

Tabitha ran over to the fawn and pounced, trying to get her to join in their game of tag. Tiffany squeaked and scrabbled away, to get pounced at by Sonic instead. Tabby pounced too, and the three youngsters tumbled around, laughing. Sonic jumped away, shaking his short, brown spikes out in all directions to get the dirt out of them. Tabby noticed he'd moved, and seeing that he was now grooming instead, she stalked through the long grass nearby on all fours. Her tail waved in the air, giving her position away, and Sonic's brown eyes followed her through the grass. He tugged at his spikes, pretending to groom again, and waited for her to pounce.

She jumped from the side, so he ducked and she went straight over his head, tumbling head over heels and ruffling her short black fur. Her tail tangled round her legs and she looked rather puzzled when she eventually stopped. Her brother had been right in her sights and then he wasn't. Sonic ran up to her, followed by Tiffany, and giggled.

"Now I'm the winner!"

"You cheat!"

"Didn't!"

"Did!"

"Didn't!"

"Did!"

"I have candy! Do you want some?"

"YAY!"

Immediately forgetting the argument, Sonic and Tabby scrambled to their feet and each grabbed a piece of the bar that Tiffany was holding out to them. The fawn smiled and munched on her own piece, sitting down on the grass. Sonic sat down too, but Tabitha darted around the nearby area, singing something to no particular tune about the chocolate.

Sonic was now five, and had no clue that he wasn't a panther. Sure he as a different colour, he was spiky, he didn't have claws or a long tail, but he could run, jump, pounce, swim and climb like a panther. He could make sounds like the panthers. He could do anything his family could do. So he had no reason to suspect that he was anything different. His big brother didn't seem to like him much, but other than that, everything he'd been told was that he was a panther. The first two years of his life had been filled with illness, disease, broken bones… you name it he'd had it. But he'd recovered from everything, and was currently a perfectly healthy hedgehog.

Tabitha was a year younger than him, and saw him as her older brother, and definitely a panther. For that matter, she saw anyone with spikes as such, often mistaking porcupines and hedgehogs for members of her own species. Though Karen had tried to explain to her, the cub wouldn't change her opinion. At least it meant that Tabby would always accept Sonic as her brother. Unlike Maverick.

Tiffany was the family's next-door neighbour. A seven year old deer, Tiffany didn't see anything wrong with Sonic being a panther, though she knew he was technically a hedgehog. In her opinion, everyone was the same. She was a very idealistic fawn, and very friendly. Plus she always had some tasty chocolate bars when she came to play.

Sonic finished his piece of chocolate and flopped onto his belly, pretending to be a rock. Well, a very spiky rock. But he didn't know what a cactus was so he stuck with the rock description. Something glinted in the longer grass nearby, and he crawled over to it. Pouncing, he saw it was a gold ring. As his hands closed around it, it vanished in a glitter of sparks and he landed on his face. Sitting up, he brushed the dirt from his eyes and looked around for it. It wasn't there. He pouted. Why did anything shiny vanish when he tried to catch it?

Tiffany laughed as she watched Sonic change his mind and take to hiding in the long grass instead. Her friend got bored so easily when something didn't go according to his plan. She pulled a paddle ball out of her bag, then started playing. This attracted Tabby's attention, and the panther sat down nearby, padding at the ball whenever it came near her.

"Tiffy? Where's Sonic?"

"I dunno"

"I'm hiding from my cheaty sister!" Sonic called from somewhere in the grass.

"You not hiding if I can hear you!"

"I am if you can' see me!"

"I can see you!"

"Liar!"

"Am not!"

"Am too!"

"Am not!"

"Am too!"

"Am NOT!"

"Am TOO!"

"AM NOT!" Tabby pounced into the grass in the hopes she'd catch Sonic, but found herself clutching air.

"Am tooooo!" Ya missed me!" Sonic was several feet away, having darted across on all fours while his sister was in mid jump.

"You was here!"

"No, I was over here" he dodged as she pounced at him again "Wrong over here!"

"Stop moving!"

"I'm not!"

This little game of hide and seek-come-tag continued for a while, temporarily stopping so that they could say goodbye to Tiffany when her dad came to get her, before resuming their game in full force. Sonic occasionally ran up to tag Tabby, before vanishing in the grass again.

"Ah stop hiding!"

"I'm n-" a rustle, squeak, and a crash.

"Sonic, where you go?" Tabby stood up, only just able to see over the grass.

Seeing a small pushbike and its rider a bit further along, out on the shorter grass, she squeaked and bounced over to it. In her occasional jump above the grass she saw more bikes and people around. But she was bouncing towards this one, because she knew him.

"Maaaaavvvvvvyyyy!"

"Hullo Tabs" Maverick grinned at his sister.

"MavvyMavvyMavvy! Tell Sonic to stop playing hidey games! He's gone quiet and I can't find him" she blinked as someone nearby yelled and swore.

"I'M NO' HIDING!"

"Hello Sonic! Heeyyyyyy… Why're you playing swingy?" Tabby pouted at Sonic's new 'friends'.

"I'm no' playing swingy either!" Sonic kicked furiously at the air below him. "Pu' me down!"

"Augh, the BRAT BIT ME!"

"Shall we put the baby down?"

"I'm NOT A BABY!" Sonic growled.

The two teenagers holding Sonic in the air by his wrists were a leopard and a monitor lizard. The leopard was sucking at the paw he'd tried covering Sonic's mouth with, and his ears were bent right back. The lizards was larger and probably older, and had Sonic's arm in a strong, single handed grip. He was restraining himself from laughing at his friend's now very sore paw, and was being careful to keep their spiky prisoner at arm's length. Tabitha started to run over to try and play too, but Maverick grabbed her tail.

"Heyyy! I wanna play too!"

"Not with those two you don't"

"Why not?"

"Because they'll beat you up! They're bullies Tabs"

"… Why's Sonic playing with them then?"

"I don't think he meant to" Maverick neglected to add the fact that he'd pointed out where Sonic was to them.

"Then he should be pu' down!" the cub turned to the older creatures and yelled "Pu' my big brother down!"

"Your big brother?" the leopard laughed "Hahahahah! The kid's got a great sense of humour!"

"Hey kitty, this ain't no panther"

"It too!"

"I am a panther!" Sonic gave a little meow-growl-roar mixture to prove it.

"Hahhahahahahahah! He's good at that" the lizard prodded Sonic's nose "but I've heard better"

"I jus' gots a sore throat is all!"

"Yes. Of course. We believe you." the leopard rolled his eyes, then pulled sharply on Sonic's arm "Let's get him back for biting me!"

"I wonder how far the kid can stretch…" the lizard licked his lips, and tightened his grip on his arm.

Sonic yelled at this, and the lizard held the wrist tighter. The leopard was repeatedly yanking on the hedgehog's arm, in an effort to pull to off, and Tabitha was chewing on Maverick's ankle, trying to get him to let go of her tail so she could help. Maverick simply said that she was too small to help, and, when asked why he didn't help either, pointed out that the same was true for him. He was smaller than them. Besides, if he tried, they wouldn't be his friends any more.

A loud wail from Sonic only made the teenagers try harder, and laugh at his feet scrabbling madly in the air to try and find something to either kick at or run away on. The lizard felt a crunch under his grip, and, startled, let go. The leopard was pulling at that moment, and so fell backwards, ending up with Sonic's quills in his stomach. He gave a yowl of pain and threw the hedgehog off of him. Sonic instinctively curled up, and rolled into the lizard's leg. It wasn't deliberate; merely caused by the momentum he'd gained from the leopard's throw; but it still earned him a hard kick in the stomach when he'd unrolled enough.

"How dare you attack us you little weirdo!"

"Yeah! You should show some respect!"

Sonic simply whimpered, which got him another kick.

"Leave him alone!"

"Shut it kid" the leopard glared over at Tabby, who's fur was standing on end, before stamping on Sonic's hand.

"Why are you being so mean!"

"It's fun!"

"It's stupid!" Tabby was pulling against her brother's grip "Why don't ya do something Mavvy?"

"They're too big! I can't fight them!"

"But they're beatin' up Sonic!"

"Yeah 'Mavvy', come do something about it!"

"Oh no, we better not angry him, an annoyed cub's _sooooo_ dangerous"

"Hey…! That's not nice!" Maverick flattened his ears. His friends were being mean to him? That wasn't fair.

"LEAVE THE CUBS ALONE"

"Uh oh…" the lizard stepped back, tapping the leopard's arm as he continued to kick Sonic.

"Huh? Oh…" the leopard stopped kicking and started running, closely followed by the lizard.

The fleeing bullies decided it best not to look back, and rapidly left the field to take refuge in their houses nearby. A large panther walked up to Maverick and Tiffany, then frowned. He looked around for Sonic, then went to gather him up. The little hedgehog was shaking and had his eyes tightly shut, so he hadn't seen who'd picked him up. All he was thinking was _'please don't hit me again'_.

"Dad Dad Dad! Those mean big boys were beating Sonic up an' Mavvy wouldn' let me 'elp him!"

"And why didn't YOU try Maverick?"

"… Sorry"

"You better be. COME ON. We're going home"

Tabitha ran up to her dad's heels, bouncing along next to him, while Maverick loitered by his bike sulkily. After a stern command from his father he got on it and rode past, ignoring another shout as he headed home. His father sighed in irritation, and gently tapped Sonic's ear.

"Sonic, are you alright?"

"Don't hit me!"

"Sonic, it's me."

"Huh?" he half opened an eye "DAD!" he twisted around to hug him, and yelped, curling up again "Owieeee…"

"Did they hurt you?"

"Nononono, I'm okay!" he shook his head

"Sonic! You shouldn't have played with them big boys"

"I wasn' playin'!"

"Come on boy, tell me the truth. Those boys hurt you didn't they?"

"… promise not to tell anyone?"

"Of course"

Sonic nodded, and his father sighed in annoyance. Why children picked on anything smaller than them was beyond him. Their parents obviously hadn't taught them any manners. Well he'd speak to them later. Right now he was taking Sonic back home, to help him. He'd not been happy when Karen had brought the child home on the blue star night. And he had been even less happy when she told him that he was going to be raised as a panther. But as much as he didn't want to raise a cursed child, he wouldn't wish him any harm. But those children had ruined his promise and now he was mad.

"How badly did they hurt you Sonic?"

"They grabbed my arm an' tried pull it off an' my wris' went crack an' they drop me an' then threw me an' then kick me." he frowned thoughtfully "Lots."

His father frowned again. This kid was getting to be a real pain to take care of. And Karen was going to be so angry when she found out what had happened. _'This kid's really not having the best of luck is he?'_ he thought to himself.

-----------------------------

Sonic healed rather quickly soon afterwards, and developed a love for running. This came accompanied with more injuries, obtained from tripping, crashing, skidding, falling off ledges and bridges… he seemed determined to get any speed related injury he could get. He ran pretty fast, but he wanted to go faster. Knowing he probably never could though, he made do with being the fastest in the Green Hill Zone. He liked to race Maverick on his bike, and though his brother didn't much like plying with him, he was still determined to show the hedgehog some humility. Five year old hedgehogs didn't know the meaning of the word. And Sonic was getting faster every day.

As he grew, his love for running did too. It was only just behind his love for swimming, so he combined the two from his tenth birthday onwards, learning to run and jump off the bridges, diving into the river that ran through the Zone, and see how far he could swim upstream. One day the family decided to go to the Emerald Coast for a day trip. They caught the boat from South Island to the smaller of the two main islands, and disembarked at the port in Station Square. Sonic ran over to the edge of the pier, looking longingly at the water. Tabitha copied him, laughing, and Maverick sulked. He hated the beach. And he said so. Loudly.

"You hate everything!" Tabby waved at a nearby dalmatian.

"Do not"

"You do!"

"Oh stuff you." Maverick walked off to the beach.

"Oh Lucifer, can you go with him please? You know what sort of trouble he'll get into." Karen sighed at her husband.

"Eh. Okay."

Lucifer walked after his son, his tail twitching irritably. Sonic ran in circles around Tabitha and Karen, eagerly asking in hurried sentences if they were gonna go to the beach too. Tabby demanded an ice cream first, so Sonic stopped asking long enough to want one too. Karen supplied them, and, after Sonic had wolfed his down and stood tapping his foot while they finished theirs, conceded to go to the beach too.

Sonic ran out onto the sand, and looked over to the series of islands, bridges and piers. But then ignored them and grinned at a large whale nearby. He dived in the water and swam over to it, then around it. Five sharks of various species swam up to him and laughed.

"Oh isn't that cute, he wants to make friends" A black-fin shark

"Shall we introduce them?" A great white.

"Hi!" Sonic waved at them and grinned "Are you friends with the whale here?"

"Oh yes, we're good friends with him." A tiger shark.

"Wanna talk to him?" A hammerhead.

"Uh huh. But he won't come all the way up to say hi"

"Well take a deep breath and go down to smile at him" A white-fin shark.

"You sure? What if he doesn't like me?"

"Oh he likes everyone" the tiger shark grinned toothily.

"Okay"

Sonic dived down, followed by the sharks. Two of them loitered next to him, while the other three swam round behind the whale. One of the sharks next to Sonic nudged him with a finned arm, and Sonic waved at the whale, smiling sweetly. It gave a short whistle, and he grinned. _'I think it likes me_'. He started swimming back to the surface, because he was getting short of breath, and the sharks grabbed his ankles, keeping him under. They dragged him over the top of the whale backwards, meaning his quills scratched into its skin. The other three sharks simultaneously swam into the whale, kicking and punching at it, insulting it in clicks and screeches. The whale sang out and swam off, but the sharks kept a grip on Sonic. The hedgehog tried punching at them, but couldn't get enough momentum behind it in the water. The sharks were younger than him, but were bigger. Hedgehogs weren't very tall compared to nearly every other species on the planet. And Sonic was slightly short for his age. Which made for more target practice.

He clawed at the water, trying to pull himself upwards, to the surface that wasn't that far away, but he couldn't. The other sharks joined in with keeping him under the water, and, unlike the leopard and the lizard he suddenly remembered from earlier in his life, these guys were _trying_ to kill him. He tried shoving them away, but starting to panic, bubbles of precious air escaping him as he tried to escape. They pulled him down further, then swam off in a rush, leaving him to try get to the surface again. He was breathing water now, and he was growing weaker…

Tabby looked over the surface of the ocean, trying to see where Sonic had gone. She had been very careful to keep an eye on her brother since the bullying incident, and seeing the whale swim over the surface but no Sonic swimming back to shore, she got to her feet and tugged at Karen's arm.

"Mummy, I can't see Sonic…"

"I'm sure he's alright dear"

"But he only went out to see the whale and he hasn't come back. I can't see him on the surface."

"Hmm…" Karen sat up. She knew that although Sonic liked swimming, he didn't say underwater for long. "Wait here Tabby, I'll go look for him."

"Okay…. He was over that way" Tabitha pointed out past the wooden bridges

"Be back in a moment dear."

Karen ran off, and Tabitha sat on the sun chair her mum had just vacated. She sighed, trying to keep an eye on her mum and one on the beach at the same time. She noticed another 'panther' and waved at her. The red eyed hedgehog she'd waved at blinked in confusion. She didn't know this cat. She wasn't going to talk to her. Instead she ignored her and resumed attacking an abandoned sandcastle with a small wooden sword. Tabitha pounced at a seashell next to the girl and grinned.

"Hi!"

"Dunno you. Go away"

"Why? I just wanna ask if you've seen my brother"

The girl pointed at Maverick, who was sulking as far away from the water as he could.

"No, not Mavvy. I mean Sonic. He looks like you" she smiled

"Your brother's a hedgehog?" the eight year old raised an eyebrow

"No, he's a panther. He just looks like you"

"I'm not a panther. And if he looks like me neither is he."

"Oh… well have you seen him anyway?"

"No. I saw a hedgehog go out to the whale but I haven't seen him since" she had a mature way of talking.

"Ohh…."

"Can you leave me alone now?"

"Umm… Okay."

She looked around, and saw her mum on a floating platform, with Sonic pressed tightly in her arms. Tabitha swam over to her, climbing on the platform. She tapped Sonic on the shoulder, and he cried.

"I don't wanna go back in there!"

"Don't worry honey, we'll go back over the bridges"

"You never said it could hurt me!" he was soaking wet and shivering

"I did, but you loved it too much to listen"

"I wanna go home!"

"Are you sure honey?"

"I wanna go hooooooooommmmmeeee!" he wailed.

"Okay dear."

They walked back along the bridges, heading back to the port. Sonic wailed, whining at the boat and demanding reassurance that it wouldn't sink. Maverick grumbled and walked onboard, followed by Lucifer and Tabitha. Sonic held Karen's hand tightly as they went back on board. The little girl hedgehog was on the boat too, with her parents nearby. She was watching them carefully, and it was freaking Sonic out more. He spent the boat ride with his eyes shut, not wanting to look at the water or the strange girl. When they were back on South Island, he ran straight for home, waiting for his mum at the door. He seemed much more cheerful with land under his feet, and was now acting like nothing had happened.

But he never went into the rivers again.

* * *

TBC 

Anyway, that's part 2. Next part- Sonic gets his powers. Yay. Then the real adaptions begin!


	3. True Blue

**Blue Star**

_Disclaimer: _Sonic and all related characters etc © SEGA/Sonic Team. Anyone you don't see in the games are © myself. So there.

_Author's Note:_ Say good bye to the little Sonic you thought you knew over the past two chapters, as he shows two more talents of the Blue Star before gaining his speed and powers. First- intelligence. We all know Sonic's not stupid, but mine goes a bit further in the fact that he is a lot smarter than he seems to be. The Blue Star may not be as much of a curse as it's believed. Second- the light dash. Yes, Sonic doesn't gain this until Sonic Adventure in the games, but mine has always had the skill that allows him to use the rings. And finally, if you're wondering how my fan character knows Sonic in It All Starts Here, this is shown here. Children make friends in a second, but it's only a good friend who stays true after you part.

Oh god, If I keep on like this I'm gonna end up going all philosophical again. So on with the story! Feel free to ask any remaining questions in reviews, okay?

Finally, the wild/pet animals in the world (aka the ones that aren't sentient like Sonic and so on) are referred to by their habitats. Land dwelling ones are Terras, flying ones are Altas, Swimming ones are Aquas, and then there are the mystical ones which are collectively referred to as Dracos. Bear this in mind if I mention them :P

* * *

Part 3: True Blue

"Can I have your watch dad?"

Sonic looked up at Lucifer from the other side of the coffee table, pulling the sweetest expression he could manage. Lucifer raised an eyebrow at him, and lowered his newspaper. It was a couple of mother after the incident at Emerald Coast.

"Why would you want my watch?"

"Because…"

"You wouldn't want to pull it apart by any chance, would you?" Lucifer asked, knowingly.

"Nooooo…." Sonic shuffled from foot to foot.

"You can have the old one. This one's mine"

"Eee, thanks! Uh… the old one's the ticking type, right?"

"Yes…"

"Yay!"

Lucifer put the newspaper down and dug in a chest of drawers next to the armchair. Sonic caught the watch as the panther threw it to him, and grinned, before darting off and up the stairs to his room with it. Lucifer sighed as he picked his paper up again. Sonic had taken a liking to the way things worked, so he had a habit of dismantling mechanical objects whenever he got his hands on them. Hence Lucifer's decision not to let him have his new watch. Maverick ran into the room, his tail waving.

"Dad, where's mum?"

"Shopping." Lucifer shrugged. It was the weekend. Karen always went shopping. "And before you ask, yes, Tabby's with her."

"Ohhh… Can you help me with my homework then?"

"Oh fine…" Lucifer folded up the newspaper "Not like I'm allowed to read… So, what's the problem?"

-+-+-+-+-

A few hours later, dull, heavy thuds were heard coming down the stairs, and both panthers raised their heads. Clanking and clicking noises were audible, as well as the hum of a motor, and a large metallic insect rolled into the room, stopping in the doorway and startling them. They looked it over as they backed away, and noticed that it seemed to be a ladybird shape, with large fore claws, a huge black tyre in place of legs, and a dull metal shell and head. Solid black lenses for eyes watching them caused them to yell, and Sonic ran into the room, leaping up to sit on top of it.

"Sonic! What the heck is that thing?!"

"This? I call it Motobug. It isn't finished yet, it got out of my room before I could paint it and add a few bits." The hedgehog grinned, holding up some antennae. "I can't get it back up the stairs."

"Where… did it come… from?!" Lucifer got to his feet and Maverick hid behind him.

"Uhh… I built it?" Sonic pulled a screwdriver from behind his ear and proceeded to attach the antennae.

"You _built **that?!**_" Lucifer's jaw dropped "When?!"

"I started it secretly just before we went to the beach, and I've nearly finished it." Sonic shrugged as he worked "I borrowed the toaster."

"Is it remote controlled?" Maverick peered around Lucifer, and gaped when Sonic shook his head "It's got an AI?"

"Yup."

"When did you learn to build robots?!" Lucifer was watching the Motobug's fore claws.

"Don't know. Just figured it out a while back. Was tweaking a friend's watch and figured it out then." He tapped his head "Things just went whoosh in my mind… I can think so fast…" he trailed off, shrugging again.

"Can you help me with my homework then?"

"Maverick…" Lucifer frowned at him.

"I know I know. I should be trying to do it myself." Maverick laughed "I was kidding… So you're not totally useless Sonic"

Sonic cast an annoyed glance at Maverick, and the Motobug turned using its claws to face the cub directly. Sonic tapped its head and it lowered the claws.

"No, no attacking Mavvy. He was just making a statement." Sonic leaned down over its side to reach a panel, and it beeped in response.

"Voice recognising too?" Lucifer blinked,

"Uh huh. And face. It's not a stupid bug."

"Where on Mobius did you get all the materials to make this?!"

"Here and there. I said I borrowed the toaster. And your watch. Mainly I tweaked around with other stuff to get the sensors and stuff. As for the shell, I went to a friend who knows someone who owns a scrap yard. They gave me all I needed. And the tools they gave me too." He opened to panel and tugged and rearranged some of the wires in the mass of cables and circuit boards. "And I got it all up to my room through the window."

"Wow…"

"Think you can help me paint it later dad?"

"… Sure… I've got to help Maverick with his homework first."

"That's alright. Hey, can I borrow the shed to store Motobug in? Since it won't get back to my room?"

"Um… okay. But don't' leave it on in there, I don't want it to break things by trying to get out."

"Uh huh. I'll turn it off when I get there. It's hard to push when its wheel's locked up."

Sonic shut the panel and tugged the antennae, turning the robot around, before jumping off and heading out to the back door to open it. The Motobug followed him like a pet terra dog, and Lucifer and Maverick blinked as they left. They'd had no idea what Sonic could do, but this had been completely outside of their expectations. Lucifer shook himself back to his senses, and turned to face Maverick,

"Let's get on with that homework, shall we?"

-+-+-+-+-

The next week, Sonic had jumped on top of the Motobug after an argument with Maverick. His brother had wanted to take the Motobug as his own, as a toy, but Sonic had refused to give it to him and called him as many nasty names as he could think of. Before anyone could say anything, he'd steered the robot out of the house and into the storm, faced north, and had sped off to the old stone bridge at the border of the zone.

He slid off the back of the bright red and blue robot, and stood on the bridge, looking up at the dark clouds above. The rain fell around him, and splashed on his face, running into his eyes. He flattened his ears, realising he'd been really annoyed if he'd run out into the rain. He still hated water. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes, then walked back to the Motobug. The rain was heavy, and puddles were forming in the worn brickwork of the bridge. The shoelaces of his muddy purple trainers dragged in the puddles, and his gloves kept sliding down his hands, revealing the dark brown swirls around his wrists, the dark brown crescent moon shapes on the sides of his hands, and the bright blue stars on the backs and palms. He tugged the gloves back up again, and ran a hand over the shell of the robot.

"Why do I get so angry…?"

He gave a startled yelp as a puddle was splashed up his side, and turned to see who had soaked him even more. An orangey yellow blur vanished across the bridge and into the rain, with faint spirals visible in the falling water and the sound of a soft helicopter rotor. He bristled, his spikes sticking up on end, and he jumped back onto the Motobug.

"I bet that was one of Mavvy's friends! I'll get them for splashing me!"

The Motobug beeped and revved, then sped after the blur. Sonic leant down so that he was lying against the back of the robot to minimise wind resistance, but he had the feeling that whoever it was was already long gone. He remembered someone mentioning something about the Emerald Hill Zone being in this direction, so he shrugged and headed towards it. He briefly debated about going back home, but a glint of gold ahead caught his attention again. He stood up on the back of the robot, almost slipping and falling off, and reached up to the gold ring that floated above his head height. He glimpsed the rest of a short line of them as his fingers closed around the first one, and suddenly a rush of energy burst through him, resulting in him finding himself running ahead of the Motobug, and gaining distance. He gradually lost speed again, but noticed another ring trail. Wanting to taste that energy again, wanting to feel that burst of pure speed, he altered his position slightly and grabbed the first in the row, shooting through the remainder in a split second, and increasing his distance from his robot even more.

This pattern continued for a while, until the rings ran out and a large village appeared in the thick rain. But Sonic was going too fast. He stopped moving his feet, but because of his momentum and the slippery road surface he skidded straight into the village. He crashed into someone with a yelp and a thud, and they tumbled over until they hit one of the cylindrical, tree-like houses. Sonic looked down at who he'd squashed, and yelped and jumped to his feet at seeing flickering and burning red eyes glaring at him. The young girl hedgehog stood up and brushed herself down. Her high collared jumper and skirt combo was a bit odd to see in the rain, especially with the fact that she was wearing sandals and seemed to have been out in it for a while, with her spikes slicked down. She frowned and picked up a large sword from the ground nearby, holding it so that it dragged on the ground behind her.

"Oh arg! Sorry! I didn't mean to crash into you, I couldn't stop."

"Hmph."

"Are you okay?"

"No worse than I ever am." She glanced him over "Hey, have I seen you before?"

"I think you were at Emerald Coast."

"Oh yeah. You were that kid who drowned. The hedgehog who thinks he's a panther." She rolled her eyes.

"But I am a panther…" Sonic flicked an ear and shrugged. "You a panther too?"

"No. I'm a hedgehog. Hedgehogs are spiky. You look like me, right?" she raised an eyebrow as Sonic nodded "Yeah, well that's because you're a hedgehog too."

"But mum's a panther. And dad's a panther. And my brother and sister are panthers. So that makes me a panther." He folded his arms indignantly.

"Ever considered that you were adopted?"

"Uhh… no?"

"Well that was probably the case. Ask your panther mum about it if you don't believe me. She'll tell you." She turned to walk off.

"Hey, wait! Uh, my name's Sonic. What's yours?" he grabbed her shoulder, and she turned around, shrugging his hand off.

"My name is Pewter Slipstream."

"How old are you? I'm ten. Hey, wanna be friends?"

"What? But you only just met me!" she blinked at him "And I don't have any friends. I don't need them."

"Think you don't need them and that's more reason to have them. So there, we're friends now." He grinned, and she gave a small smile.

"… Okay, thank you Sonic."

"So this is a nice village. What you doing out in the rain? Where's everyone else?" Sonic looked around.

"Everyone else is indoors. I was feeling the rain." She shrugged "This is the Emerald Hill Village."

"So I made it to Emerald Hill already? … Hey, have you seen an orange blur thing? It splashed me and I was chasing it." Sonic turned his attention back to her, and she frowned thoughtfully.

"Orange blur? No, sorry. Hey, where you from?"

"I'm from Green Hill." Sonic grinned, then looked around. "Oops, left Motobug behind."

"Motobug?" Pewter tilted her head.

"Ah, it's a robot I built."

"You mean from a kit?"

"No, I built it." Sonic flicked an ear, hearing the chugging of the motor "And it's coming. Hey, Mo-to-bug!"

Pewter yelped and hid behind Sonic as the robot trundled up to them, making barely audible clicks and beeps. Sonic petted it, and jumped up onto its back. He grinned at the younger and smaller hedgehog, who blinked.

"Wow, nice robot…"

"Heheh, yeah. I', working on another one too. One that fliiiiiiiieeeessssss!" he laughed.

"Cool! Heh, hey, come back to visit again when it's sunny, okay? Emerald Hill's really pretty in the sun."

"Okay, I will. I should get home now anyway."

"Uh huh. Bye Sonic! … Thanks for talking to me… No one else does."

"No problem. Not many people talk to me either" he grinned "See ya!"

He turned the Motobug around and waved, speeding off back to Green Hill. He felt a lot better now, he figured that he should apologise to Maverick when he got back in. And ask his mother about this hedgehog thing his new friend had mentioned.

-+-+-+-+-

"You're a hedgehog, yeah."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I have been meaning to, but I never found the time"

Sonic sat on top of the coffee table, in front of Karen as she sat in her armchair. He'd dried out from the outing in the rain, and was now fidgeting. Karen sighed, and shook her head.

"I didn't mean to hurt you by not telling you. You just made such a good panther, I didn't see the harm in leaving you to believe that you were for a little longer."

"Oh…" Sonic pulled his gloves off, glancing over the markings on his hands before looking at his nails, which were sharpened to points to mimic claws "I guess it's okay. I know I'm a hedgehog now, but it doesn't mean I have to be like one right? I can still be a panther when I want okay?"

"Hahaha, of course."

"I can stay being a panther here, and you can still be my mum, right?" he pulled his gloves back on and looked at her, and she nodded, smiling.

"Of course you can, you're my little Sonic cub and that won't change."

Sonic laughed and pounced at her, hugging her happily. She hugged him back, carefully putting her arms around his spikes. Tabitha skipped past the room, then peered in. Sonic turned his head to grin at her.

"Hi Tabby!"

"You back now Sonic? Have fun out in the rain?"

"Yeah, I went to a whole other Zone, and found out something I can use those rings for, and made a friend. Hey, where'd Mavvy go?" Sonic tilted his head, only just realising that he hadn't seen Maverick since returning.

"Uh, he went to his friend's. Said somethin' about you bein' selfish an' not lettin' him play with you robot" Tabitha shrugged.

"Oh…" Sonic flattened his ears.

Karen put a hand on top of his head and ruffled his spikes "Why don' you tell us about your trip Sonic?"

"Ooo yay! Tell us! Where'd ya go? Was it raining there too? Did you have fun?" Tabby darted into the room and jumped onto the sofa, waiting for Sonic to tell the story.

"Okay, I'll tell ya."

Sonic climbed off Karen's lap and sat next to his sister, grinning, then started recalling the trip, recapping everything he'd done and seen. When his story was finished, Tabby clapped and looked at Karen.

"Can you take us to Emerald Hill sometime? I wanna see!"

"If you're both good at school we'll visit it now and again, deal?"

"Um… okay!" the children cheered in unison.

"Go off and play in your rooms. No more storm games or you'll catch cold."

"Okay mum. Hey Tabs, wanna come see my new project?" Sonic started out of the lounge and up to his bedroom.

"Okay Sonic the Hedgehog!" Tabitha giggled and followed him as he smiled.

"'Sonic the Hedgehog'… Nice sound to that."

-+-+-+-+-

Over the next nearly two years they visited different Zones on the island, but the Emerald Hill was a regular destination. Sonic introduced them to Pewter, who didn't seem too bothered by the large cats, and in turn introduced them to her own family. Sonic took a particular liking to her brother, who looked a lot like himself, right down to the brown eyes. They grew to know the village almost as well as their own Zone, and the villagers became good friends with the family. Sometimes Sonic had to be stopped from wandering off after something that only he could hear, but otherwise the years were uneventful, apart from the occasional bully incident. And one case where the hedgehog had fallen into a river and panicked.

Until one weekend, just after Sonic's twelfth birthday. The events that would happen this day, would change his life forever.

-+-+-+-+-

Sonic had ridden Motobug to the Emerald Hill again after his birthday, and this time there was a smaller robot, wasp-like in shape, sitting on top of his head. He watched the scenery for rings, having heard that sometimes they reappeared. But it seemed that this time they weren't there. He'd told Karen where he was going, just so she knew, but he'd wanted to go there on his own this time. To explore and play and anything else he felt like.

He heard something again. A quiet, ringing sound, like a distant instrument. He halted Motobug, to get a fix on where it was coming from, then directed his robot to head towards it. It was near the base of a giant stone loop. These were prominent features around the planet, always coloured like the grass and stone of the zones. He liked to see how far he could climb up them, but never really succeeded. But the sound wasn't coming from above the loop; it was coming from beneath it. He slid off the Motobug at the base of the loop, and started wandering around, looking for the source of the sound.

"Hey, whatcha looking for Sonic?"

"Huh?" He looked up to the top of the loop, to see Pewter waving down at him. "Oh, hi! I'm looking for the thing that's making the noise I can hear…" he turned his attention back to the ground, to see if there was a way underneath the loop.

"Hmm… You tried over there?" Pewter's voice was right behind him instead of above, and he jumped.

"How did you… but you were all they way up there… huh?!" he blinked, and she grinned, tapping the side of her nose.

"It's a secret. Look, over here there's a metal trapdoor in the ground. It covers a tunnel. Maybe what you're looking for is in there?" she walked over to a large bush and stamped her foot hard near it, causing an echoing sound.

"Oh, hey, that's cool! Thanks Pewter!" Sonic crouched down and pulled at the flap until it slid aside.

"Heh, just show me what you find down there. I have to go back home for now, but you can come visit me there to show me, okay? Be careful, I don't know what's down there." She waved and turned to run back towards the village.

"Okay! See ya later!"

Sonic peered into the tunnel. It was a steady, gentle slope, leading down into the ground beneath the Zone. He told Motobug to wait for him near the loop, and the robot beeped in response. The smaller insect on Sonic's head hovered above him, and he tapped it.

"You stay with Motobug, Buzzy. I'll be back soon."

A whirr of the wings propelled the robot over to its companion, and it perched on one of the larger one's antennae. Sonic grinned at them, and slid down into the tunnel. The smell of machinery attacked his senses, and he shook his head, and then started walking down the large tunnel. He felt that it was going down further, but there wasn't much light to see by. After a while of walking, a small light showed up in the darkness, like the light through a crack in a door. He jogged the rest of the distance to it, and pushed against the wall next to it, to find that it was, indeed, a door. A large door. It swung into the room beyond, and Sonic cautiously walked inside. There were many bleeping monitors and whirring machines, but he could hear that ringing again. It was more of a song now, with words he couldn't quite understand. He glanced around the room again.

It was a very large room, with narrow windows in the ceiling. This meant that it extended up to the surface level from where he was standing. The machinery and computers were mainly arranged around the walls, but a large object towered in the centre of the room. The song was coming from inside it, and Sonic could see frosted glass panes were holding something that shone within it. He cautiously walked through the room, looking around for whoever ran the place. He saw some interesting red and white sneakers, so he picked them up and tried them on playfully. Not seeing anyone, he walked up to the large machine, and pressed his face against the glass. The way it was made meant that it was hard to see what was inside it, but he could make out six objects floating within it. It was these things that were singing to him. He perked his ears up, mesmerized by the song. They were asking him to do something for them.

The human who worked the machines walked back into the room just as Sonic, in a trance like state, reached for the rings that were acting as a power source for the machine. He ran over.

"No, stop!"

Sonic's consciousness snapped back as he took the rings away. He looked at the tall, slim human with the orange moustache that had woken him back up.

He was about to apologise, but a bright light emanated from the machine.

And it exploded.

-+-+-+-+-+-

The world was silent.

A voice. It was speaking to him.

It was calling him. But it wasn't saying his name.

"Wake up! Wake up, are you alright?!"

He knew the voice.

He urged his eyes to open, and waited for his vision to return. The blur leaning over him was Karen.

"Mmm…. Mum?"

"Are you alright?"

"… Oww… It… kersploded… Was it something I did…?"

"Hey, hey, don't you go back to sleep yet!" Karen shook him as he tried to close his eyes again "Have you seen my Sonic?!"

"… What are you talking about? … Mum… I'm Sonic…"

"What?"

"I'm Sonic…" he repeated.

Karen could only stare in pure disbelief at the bright blue creature sitting in front of her. Eight bladed spikes, torn gloves and strange shoes. Bright green eyes.

This couldn't be Sonic.

… Could it?

* * *

TBC 


	4. It Begins

**Blue Star**

_Disclaimer:_ I own Pewter and the panthers, but everyone else is either a background charrie or owned by Sega/Sonic Team. No sue me.

_Author's Note:_ Much dialogue in this bit. Sorry about that.

* * *

Part 4: It begins

The bright blue hedgehog sat with his hands on his head, shaking his head to try and get the ringing in his ears to go away. Karen kept her hands on his shoulders as if to prevent him from going anywhere, even though the child wasn't intending to leave while his head still hurt.

"Please, where's Sonic?"

"I already told you… I'm Sonic…"

"But… you can't be… you don't even look like a normal hedgehog, let alone my little cub." Karen was determined to learn whether or not this kid was for certain Sonic.

"Mrs Spiritpaw!" The little call was barely audible over the sounds of murmurs of the crowd that had gathered. The young red-eyed hedgehog girl pushed through between the legs of the villagers, dragging her sword behind her. "Mrs Spiritpaw! What happened?" On hearing Pewter's question, the rest of the crowd also decided they wanted to know.

"I don't know! I was following after Sonic to cal him home, but then I saw the explosion and ran as fast as I could to get here. All I've found was this cub; he says he's Sonic but…" Karen shook her head.

Pewter ran the short distance between the crowd and Karen, and looked over the blue hedgehog. "… Sonic?"

"Pewter! I thought everyone had gone blind or something!"

"… Not really, you do look… A lot different."

"I do?" Sonic shook his head again and looked over himself, eyes widening in surprise and confusion "Whoa… What happened to me? This is me, right?" Sonic looked up and around the faces, then settled his gaze on Karen and Pewter "Why… am I… blue?"

"What did you find down there?" Pewter tilted her head, and Karen just sat in silence, still holding Sonic's shoulders.

"Um… A laboratory of some type. There were floating glowy things in a glass machine, and they asked me to let them out. And there was some human there and he said 'No don't do that' and I didn't even know what I'd done. And the machine with the glowy things kerploded." Sonic nodded, acknowledging to himself that that was indeed what had happened. "But why am I blue? I'm not supposed to be blue…"

"It's really Sonic?" Karen seemed stuck for words. "But… What…"

"Mum… I wanna go home" Sonic pouted and shook the last echoes of the explosion away from his ears.

"Mrs Spiritpaw, this is Sonic, I can tell" Pewter tapped the panther's shoulder, and Karen started "Take him home."

"Karen Spiritpaw! Explain just what is going on!" An annoyed looking squirrel almost barked the words, as if he blamed the panther for everything. "There's a massive crater in our Zone, debris scattered throughout the village, and we come here and find you talking with this bizarre creature that's probably the cause of it! Explain!"

Karen growled in her throat at being spoken to like that, and leapt to her feet. "I would explain if I knew what was going on! You cannot command me around like you seem to think you can. So I wouldn't try it." There was a soft click as she unsheathed her claws, and the squirrel took a step backwards.

"I wanna go home…" Sonic whined quietly, carefully standing up "Mum, can we please go home?"

"I…"

"Please? I'm gonna need to reprogram Motobug and Buzzy coz I look so different now and I can't do that right now!" Sonic looked around for the robots "Where are they anyway? I told them to wait next to that loop! They're in trouble when I find them" he frowned.

"I passed them on the way here. They were just wandering around in circles." Karen raised an eyebrow at Sonic.

"They were? Well I'm gonna go find them."

"Wait, you… You're definitely Sonic, aren't you?"

"Well duh." Sonic rolled his eyes and rubbed his shoulder "I've been saying that all along!"

"Um… Okay… I'll see you on the way home. If you wait by the robots we can talk better okay?"

"Yeah, okay mum." Sonic fidgeted foot to foot "Can I go now?"

"Yes you can. I'll finish talking to these guys first." Karen gestured over her shoulder, and Sonic nodded.

The hedgehog started walking back towards Green Hill, but soon found himself surrounded again by half of the crowd. They were jostling to see him better, and some of those close enough dared to tug on his spikes. Questions were thrown at him, and he tried to walk backwards away from them. Karen looked over from her argument with the squirrel, and growled at the crowd, demanding that they leave him alone. Pewter darted over and pushed through the mass of bodies, tugging Sonic's arm.

"You lot should know better than this!" She yelled at the crowd, and Sonic whined at them "Leave him alone!"

Her little outburst silenced them for a second, but then the group started prodding and pulling at Sonic again, ignoring her. Sonic yelled out for Karen, and caught sight of a small gap in the group, and ran through it and away.

The Emerald Hill Zone residents got up from where they had been knocked down, and stared at the spot where Sonic had been a second before; but now where a few small clouds of dust were vanishing into the air. Pewter stood up too, and ran back over to Karen, explaining what had happened. Karen stared for a second, and then growled again.

"You lot had no right to upset him!"

"He ran… so fast…" Someone she couldn't see said.

"However fast he runs is none of your business!"

"I demand-" the squirrel started again, but Karen's glare silenced him.

"I can't see why you're being so mean to him! I'm going home and we're _not_ coming back here again!"

"Mrs. Spiritpaw…" Pewter tugged her arm "I can come visit you though, right? Because like… Sonic's my friend."

Karen nodded at the little girl, and then glared around the rest of the people "You should all be ashamed of yourselves."

-+-+-+-

After sprinting away from the village and back towards the Green Hill Zone, Karen found Sonic sitting at the base of a large stone loop, rubbing his head and cursing the object. The robots were still circling for no apparent reason nearby, but Sonic didn't seem to have noticed them. She called him, and he turned his head, frowning with those unnatural green eyes.

"The stupid loop jumped out in front of me"

"Are you sure you didn't just run into it?"

"Why would I run into a giant thing made of stone?!" Sonic snapped, then got to his feet and jumped up into the loop, stamping on it "Stupid thing!"

"Do you have any idea how fast you were going?"

"No, I was just running away from all their questions and tugging and I don't like being pulled around." He sat down, swinging his legs over the edge of the loop.

"Well, it was a lot faster than you normally g-"

"Ooo a ring!"

Sonic was looking up at the top of the loop, and could see one of the rings floating just below the curved surface. He got to his feet and looked at the wall. Karen bit her lip, and told him to get down, but he'd already taken a couple of steps backwards to gauge the size of the loop. Before she could say it again, he sped forwards and up the side of the loop, rushing around it in a second and missing the ring in his surprise at getting around the full length of the loop. He made another loop, caught it, and tried stopping. He skidded another circuit of the loop, then fell backwards, and rolled off of the structure. He stared at his feet.

"Whoa."

"Are you okay Sonic?"

"Yeah I'm okay. Wow… How'd I do that?"

"I don't know… But… More than just your looks have changed then…" Karen crouched down and held his shoulders "You want to sort out these robots of yours right?"

Sonic nodded. "Yeah. They've been messed up by something from the look of it." He walked over to them carefully, and whistled. The robots stopped. "Well, their stop command works at least." He flicked open a panel on the side of the Motobug, and started fiddling around with it. "Agghh, something's fried the circuits… Might've been that kerplosion." He sighed and picked up Buzzy, then placed it on the Motobug's back. Giving a different whistle, he commanded only the Motobug to start up again, and it whirred and headed back to the Green Hill Zone village.

"What if it messes up again Sonic?"

"I'll just do the same thing. Now… What do I do about this?" He ran in circles, creating a small tornado of dust and grass, then skidded again "How am I gonna go to school like this? They'll all take the mickey out of me!"

"No they won't, they'll probably think it's cool" Karen smiled at Sonic "Plus your speed'll mean you can show them not to take the mick by beating them in races"

"That's… true…" He frowned thoughtfully "What'll Mavvy and Tabby and Dad think though? What if they think I'm weird."

"Sonic, we're your family, we could never call you weird."

"Mavvy could."

"Ignore him. He's just at an awkward age." Karen nodded. "Come on, let's go home. And you can work on your stopping while we go there, okay?"

"I stop fine." Sonic pouted "But maybe a little bit of practice will help…" He darted a short way down the path, and Karen sighed, following him.

-+-+-+-

Two years later Sonic was lounging near a river within the Green Hill Zone, watching a few Terra rabbits hopping around. He sat with his back against a palm tree and his arms folded between his spikes behind his head, humming a random tune. The Motobug was beeping nearby, and Sonic flicked an ear around to see what it was after. Seeing that it was just watching him, he shrugged. There was no humming around any more, as he had given Buzzy to his friend a few weeks back when she had to leave South Island, and he hadn't been bothered to build another one. His new speed skills had kept him occupied.

A blue Alta bird, known as a Flicky, flew past him, and he smiled. The Zone was nice and quiet, though in recent months a lot of the wild animals had vanished for no apparent reason. It had bugged Sonic at first, but since no body else seemed bothered, so he had gradually paid less attention to it. A metallic whine interrupted his thoughts, and he got to his feet, looking semi-accusingly at Motobug. The robot simply beeped at him, and he frowned, turning around to see what was making the noise. He looked up, and fell backwards in surprise. A small swarm of about twenty giant wasp robots, a lot like his Buzzy in design, were flying overhead. He blinked, and Motobug gave an alarmed beep. Turning his head, he cried out in shock. A large group of Motobugs were rushing towards him. Sonic jumped up to the top of the palm tree as the robots trundled past, and his own Motobug was lost in the horde. Sonic turned his head to look towards the village, and his jaw dropped. The Buzzy-like robots had got there already, and the village was in flames. He cried out as the strange Motobugs sped after the wasp robots, and slid down the trunk of the tree. His own Motobug was in pieces on the ground, but as much as he had loved that robot, his village, his family, were in trouble. He growled, and bolted towards the village. The air around him grew hazy, then misty. He skidded to a halt, and looked around. Blue mist… Sonic's mind rushed through what he'd picked up about religion and superstition, and yelped.

"Genocide City!" Sonic looked around as the mist thickened, and saw vague shapes flying around within it.

A powerful stench of rot and blood bombarded his senses without warning, the sound of cracking rock and tearing metal, interlaced with screams of terror joined in, and he couldn't see past the end of his nose. He ran forwards blindly, with his ears flattened against his head, trying to ignore the screams and sounds, and the feel of the Zone collapsing around him. Several cries for him caught his attention, and he shook his head, hoping the calls would go away. Some were asking for his help, some were blaming him, and he felt himself crying. Wiping his eyes on the back of his glove, he caught the sound of metallic wings beating. Metallic wings. Those fake Buzzys!

He bared his unusually sharp teeth, focused on the sound of the wings, and ran towards them. Bursting out of the mist, he landed on top of the nearest wasp robot, and swung his fists down into it, pulling it apart in a pure rage. Leaping to the next one, he repeated the procedure, and threw the majority of the robot at the nearest Motobug, to the satisfaction of a twin explosion. Sonic caught sight of Genocide vanishing out of the corner of his eye, but he was too annoyed to care. He swung a kick at another Motobug as it charged at him, and indented its head with the force of the blow, knocking it backwards into another robot. He saw a strange machine fly overhead, and its pilot looked over the edge with a large, mustached face, frowned at him, and sped off. Sonic was knocked off his feet by a chameleon-like robot appearing out of nowhere and crashing into his back. He growled deeply as he got to his feet again, before jumping to grab the robot and throw it into a totem pole that had appeared where Genocide had been. As the robot exploded, the rest of the attacking army of machines split up and scattered through the rest of the Zone, which now looked completely different. Sonic stared around the Zone, taking in the new details.

"What… Is going… On?" Sonic bit his lip, looking for any sign of the rest of Green Hill's residents. "Where is everyone?!"

* * *

TBC 


	5. The Green Hill Zone

**Blue Star**

_Disclaimer: _Sonic etc © SEGA/Sonic Team. Any background characters are mine.

_Author's Note:_ Time for the adaptation to begin. Please note that I'm using the Mega Drive/Genesis and STC Fleetway versions of the levels, not the MS or the GG ones, as the MD/STC versions are the ones I know the best. And the Zones of Sonic 1 and 2 are (nearly) all on South Island because that's what I have always figured. That and I never used to read instruction manuals: P Here we go  (author's notes shall be reduced to a minimum from now on)

* * *

Part 5: The Green Hill Zone

Sonic dashed around the burning remains of the Green Hill Zone's village, picking up the Terra rabbits and the Flickies that had fallen from the few machines he had destroyed and persuading them to get on their way, and looking for any sign of the residents, but finding none. He sped over to the totem pole that the chameleon robot had exploded against, and frowned at it. It definitely had _not_ been there before Genocide City had appeared. Jumping up to stand on the top of it, the cerulean hedgehog looked around. The Zone had changed almost completely. The stone loops were still intact, but where the old stone bridge should have been, and a good few hundred feet on the Green Hill side, there was a large, fast flowing river. Totem poles had appeared around the Zone in seemingly random locations, the palm trees had developed small spikes along their trunks, and the few methods of crossing the waterfalls had either vanished completely or been replaced by narrow bars. Sonic could also see the robots attacking other parts of the Zone, tormenting the Terra and Alta animals. But he could not see any of the Zone's former residents. Reflecting on what he had heard within Genocide, he shook his head and covered his eyes.

"I'm… alone…" Sonic sat down on top of the totem pole, sniffling. "I can't believe it… How could anyone do this…? How?" He looked up, rubbing his eyes. "I bet that floating human guy had something to do with this!" Growling, he jumped off of the totem pole, and glared in the direction the human had gone. "I'm gonna get him and _make him talk!_"

Sonic started running, speeding up in seconds and blasting past a higher bit of ground. One of the wasp robots appeared over the top of the verge, and paused in mid air, firing a bolt of plasma at him. The grass ignited where he had just been, and he skidded, jumping up to the robot. He curled into a ball in mid air, and his short, razor sharp spikes tore through the metal, causing the robot to explode. A Terra rabbit fell out of the shattered machine, and shook itself, before hopping away. Sonic snorted at the robot's wreckage. _'So they fire bolts at me? Like… Like bombs. Buzzy… Buzz Bombers.'_ Turning to resume running, he jumped over a crystalline fern, and landed on top of a Motobug. He stamped hard on it, and the metal carapace crunched underfoot. The robot sparked, so Sonic leapt off and ran further through the Zone, smashing any and every robot he could find. He stood near a crab-like one for a while, watching to see what it would do. After it fired twin plasma bolts from its pincers, Sonic ran at it, curling into a ball to roll along the ground and rip through the robot. All these metal monstrosities were plaguing around his damaged home Zone, and he was going to get rid of them. Uncurling back into a run, he sprinted past a small grove of trees, and slid down an unexpected slope. A deep pit was at the bottom of the bank, filled with tall, wickedly pointed columns of stone. Sonic yelped and leapt into the air, his powerful legs sending him sailing across the pit to the cliff-like ledge on the other side. The blue hedgehog landed on the edge of the precipice, slid, and ended up clinging to the top by his fingertips. Looking down, he assured himself that he did _not_ like the idea of falling into that pit, and kicked a foothold into the orange and brown chequered wall. Using his makeshift footing as a base, he jumped to get a better grip on the grass. Another crystalline fern was near enough to the edge for him to grab hold of, and he used it to pull himself all the way up to the solid ground.

"That cliff… was not there… the other day…" Sonic lay flat on his stomach, muttering the words into the grass with tones of annoyance and breathlessness.

After a moment of recuperation, Sonic got to his feet and looked around, trying to think of what could have happened to his Zone. A chameleon robot appeared out of thin air again, hovering in front of his face for a moment, before curling its tail up against its body to make itself more like a missile. Sonic blinked at it, then yelped and ducked as the robot shot overhead. It looped around behind him and came back, so Sonic leapt into the air in a flip and landed on its back, riding it through the air. It tried to shake him off by performing hairpin turns, but in response Sonic shifted his weight to remain on the machine.

"Awesome! Sky board!" Sonic held his arms out and mimicked the pose of a surfer, before realising that he was heading straight for a wall. "Uh oh… Uh, gotta go 'meleon!"

With that, he back flipped off of the robot, and the force from his kick-off sent the machine careering out of control and directly into the wall before it could right itself and change course. The small explosion and the rabbit hopping away in a hurry were music to the hedgehog's ears. Sonic grinned, and then resumed his pursuit of the human. He sped down another nearby hill, and found himself at a sunken river. Cursing, he looked around for a way to cross it. Another chameleon robot uncloaked against a chequered cliff, and Sonic frowned at it. This one was green, unlike the other two which had attacked him; they were blue. He wondered what this one was going to do, and soon found out when he had to leap aside from an electrical bolt which crackled when it hit the damp grass of the river side. Growling, he sprang at it, and it vanished again. His fist passed right through where it should have been, and he cracked his fist against the wall. Giving a yelp of pain he backed off, shaking his hand.

"Fine, I'll leave you alone for now" Sonic growled at the invisible robot, and turned around, catching sight of a rotating beam crossing the expanse of the river. He darted towards it, and whined pathetically. "Great... Spiky log."

The beam was covered in wicked spikes, serrated on the sides so that they could tear your legs if they caught them. A narrow pathway was visible, twisting in a spiral along the full length of the beam between the spikes. Sonic frowned, watching it for a couple of rotations, trying to figure out the speed of the log's spin. He glanced at the fast flowing river below, and took a breath, before stepping out onto the clear bit of the log. The beam was about a foot wide, and the narrowness of the path meant that you had to put one foot in front of the other, making it harder to keep your balance as the wooden pole span. It wasn't spinning fast, but the constant sound of the nearby thundering waterfall and the piranha robots snapping in the water below him were distracting. Sonic walked carefully through the spikes, judging each step as accurately as he could. The log twisted suddenly, and Sonic froze. There was a creak, followed by a snapping noise, and the log stopped turning. The blue hedgehog flicked his ears, and gave a startled yelp as the beam snapped. He sprang into the air, but started falling short of the edge. A piranha robot jumped out of the water at him, and he instinctively curled up, bouncing off of it as it exploded and the Flicky flew out. He crashed into a palm tree on the other side of the river, and cringed from the impact on the spiky trunk. After he slid to the floor he rubbed his chest and brushed his fur back into order.

"Ouch…"

Sonic stood up again, and looked around. A Buzz Bomber swooped down out of the sky and fired at him, forcing him to jump aside. He growled deeply, and picked up a stone, before hurling it at the robot. The projectile shot through the machine's head and it fell to the ground. Sonic frowned.

"I'm getting annoyed with your type of attacks you rip off. Sneaking up on me is not a good thing!" Sonic kicked another stone at the wasp, and it exploded, allowing the Terra rabbit inside to hop to safety. "Well… At least I know where the animals went."

Sonic shook his head and turned to continue his run through the Zone. He sprang up to the top of a tall totem pole nearby to get a glance around the Zone, searching out the moustached human. He could spy the floating machine in a field a short distance away, partially hidden amongst several hovering platforms. Glaring, he sped towards it, crossing a bridge over the top of a waterfall. It creaked underfoot, and a plank fell out. Sonic watched the wooden slat float down the river and over the falls, and whined, hurrying over the rest of the bridge. He rushed along the path, and skidded into the field.

The hovering machine was positioned between a pair of the floating platforms, and at sight of the hedgehog running into the field, the human laughed. Sonic stared up at the machine, then at the large, glowing wrecking ball beneath it, then back up towards the human's face. He pointed and growled.

"Who are you?!"

"I am the scientist Doctor Robotnik. And you, dear boy, have been ruining my robots?"

"You stole my designs!"

"I did not. I used my own designs. And you're hardly capable of creating such masterpieces as my machines." The scientist raised an eyebrow at Sonic, who growled.

"My Motobug and Buzzy didn't use animals as… As… Whatever you were using them for, I admit! But you still stole their external designs!"

"The animals were the power source. You'd be surprised how effective a rabbit can be to power a robotic soldier. And animal designs are unsettling for creatures such as you little…" Robotnik laughed "Oh yes, you're a hedgehog."

"Yeah, and?"

"You have some interesting skills I see. But you're so young, there is no way you can beat me my boy."

"Shut up! What are you doing to my Zone?! What's with all these robots anyway?!" Sonic flattened his ears. "Fix my Zone!"

"This is how the Zone used to be, if you must know. And I did not do anything to it."

"You burned down my village!"

"It was in my way." Robotnik shrugged. "And now you are in my way too."

"You wrecked my Zone!"

"I've already told you my boy, it was not my fault the Zone reverted from the way you knew it to the way it used to be. But you're too young to understand I guess. And it's a shame that I'm going to have to destroy it to get what I want back."

"You ain't smashing up my Zone, no matter what you want." Sonic jumped up onto the top of a platform. "I'm gonna stop you!"

"Then my dear boy, I shall have to get rid of you too. It's a shame. A sonic speed hedgehog would be an interesting research specimen." Robotnik laughed as Sonic bristled.

"I am no research specimen!" Sonic jumped at the floating machine, and span into a ball. He bounced off of the metal shell and landed back on the platform.

"You'll regret attacking me my boy!"

Robotnik pressed a button on his dashboard and the giant wrecking ball swung backwards, before swinging towards the platform that Sonic was standing on. The hedgehog yelped as the orb crashed into the bottom of the platform, unsettling his balance and throwing him off. He rolled along the floor in a ball, narrowly missing another swing of the ball, before uncurling and springing up onto a platform again. He cast a glance over the machine, and settled his gaze on the open cockpit in which the scientist was seated. A small grin crossed his face, and he jumped on top of the ball as it swung up through the platform he had been standing on. When the orb reached the highest point of its swing, Sonic waved at Robotnik, then leaped into the air and curled into a ball. Robotnik hurriedly banked the machine sideways to avoid having the razor sharp spikes hit him. Sonic tore through the chain holding the wrecking ball, and the sphere crashed to the ground. Robotnik twisted the hovercraft around so that he could glare through his glasses at the cerulean hedgehog on the ground below.

"Stop dodging!" Sonic snarled at the human.

"I would much rather not have those quills of yours stuck in my head thank you." Robotnik frowned. "Farewell my boy."

"I am not your boy!"

Sonic ran after the machine as it turned and started flying away. A large, cylindrical machine was sitting on the ground in front of him, so instead of adjusting his course to run around it, he jumped, but had misjudged the height so his trailing foot caught on the edge of the circular button on the top, tripping him over. He landed flat on his stomach on the button, and it pressed down. Sonic blinked and sat up as the machine shook, then sprang off of it as it exploded, releasing Terra rabbits and Alta bluebirds, which promptly ran away into the Zone. Sonic sighed and sat down in the grass, looking around the Green Hill Zone again.

"That Robotnik guy's up to something. And I'm gonna stop him." He got back to his feet, and turned to face the direction the scientist had gone. "Marble Zone huh?"

Sonic clenched his fists and ran towards the volcanic mountain in the center of South Island. Marble Zone was around the lower edge; whilst at the top within the crater was the Hill Top Zone. Sonic couldn't see the hovercraft moving up the side of the volcano, so he bolted along the fields, weaving between totem poles, until the first ruins appeared.

* * *

TBC 


	6. The Marble Zone

**Blue Star**

_Disclaimer: _Sonic and all related characters © SEGA/SonicTeam

_Author's note:_ The Chaos Emeralds aren't going to be in special stages for the Sonic 1 adaptation, and I have a reason for that, which will be made clear when I get to the Sonic 2 one.

* * *

Part 6: The Marble Zone

As Sonic sped through the lush fields of the altered Green Hill Zone, aiming for the ruins he saw ahead, he tripped over and tumbled in a roll, crashing into a totem pole. Grumbling, he stood up and walked back a short way to find what he'd fallen over. A familiar ringing noise that he hadn't heard since he'd got his speed sounded in the grass, and he jogged over to it. Looking down, Sonic saw a beautiful gemstone lying mostly buried the ground. It was a pale grey in colour, and glowing with an internal light. He reached down and dug it up, looking into the translucent surface and tilting his head to see the crackles of energy within it. Its chiming song gradually quietened as Sonic grew used to listening to it, and he flicked an ear.

"I don't think I should leave you lying around…" Sonic said to the jewel. "There's something… odd about you…" He frowned and looked around for something to carry it in, before settling on one of the last few palm trees in the Zone. He jumped up and pulled a large leaf off, before sitting down and fashioning a bag out of it and some stiff pieces of grass. He slid the stone into the satchel, and slung it over his shoulder. "That's better. I may not know what the deal is with you, but I don't think anyone else should see you either."

He stood up again and stretched, yawning. Then Sonic caught sight of a Buzz Bomber flying through the nearest ruins, and remembered what he was heading that way for. He growled lightly, before resuming his previous sprint for the ruins of Marble Zone. His mind raced through things that he'd heard about the Zone, like it had once been half of a giant City, and that they'd mastered geothermal energy using the volcano. Minor things that Sonic liked to pay attention to.

The broken pillars of partly eroded white marble gradually came up around him as he ran across the line between the two Zones. If the marble wasn't there, the only thing that would have enabled Sonic to tell that he'd crossed between the Zones was the different shade and texture of the grass. Whereas Green Hill Zone's was soft, supple grass, a rich, shimmering green in colour, Marble Zone's was more brown and dull, like it had dried out, and coarser. Sonic had a feeling it was the proximity to the volcano that caused it. He continued to run forwards, and jumped when the Buzz Bomber he had spotted earlier zoomed into sight. The hedgehog spun through the metal, leaving the robot to explode, and paused for long enough to raise an eyebrow at the small seal that fell from it. The seal shuffled off into the ruins, and vanished. Sonic shook his head and turned around again, in time to spy a pink caterpillar robot crawling across the grass towards him.

It wasn't moving fast. It wasn't even moving threateningly. All it was doing was slowly crawling towards him, using the ripple-like motion common to real caterpillars, and opening and closing its mouth. Sonic scoffed. Sure, he hadn't been at this robot smashing thing for a day yet, but he could tell that this thing was a pretty poor excuse for a robot. In his eyes, it couldn't hurt him at all unless he deliberately put his foot in its mouth or something. He took a step backwards from it as said mouth tried to chew on said foot, and swung a powerful kick at it. The force of the blow knocked the robot's head flying over the ruins, and the remaining three spherical segments of its body fell to the ground uselessly, allowing the squirrel inside to run out and off towards the pine trees that lined the side of the volcano. Sonic rolled his eyes.

"Well _that_ was threatening. Lessee… He can't have got too far away…" Sonic looked up at a purple-grey stone cliff ahead. "He probably floated over that in that stupid machine. So…" the hedgehog looked down the wall that was blocking his path, and smiled at a passage partly hidden behind some rising and falling columns of stone. "So I'll cut through it"

Sonic darted over towards the passageway, but skidded to a halt just before he reached the moving columns. Mainly because he found himself faced with a river of lava right at his feet. He took a step backwards again, and sighed.

"Man that was close! Geez, I didn't know just how close to the surface the magma is here. No wonder it's so warm." Sonic frowned at the wide flow in front of him, then up at the shifting platforms. "Maybe…"

He tensed up, and jumped into the air as the platform nearest him lowered towards the lava. When the next platform lowered the one he was on rose, so he jumped down to it, then onto the solid land on the other side. Sonic sighed miserably, knowing full well that this was the safest part of the Zone. Not many people ventured through Marble because of the earthquakes and the lava. But he knew he didn't really have anything else that he could do if he wanted to find out why this Doctor Robotnik had attacked his Zone. He ran for the passage and cut through to the other side, hastily ducking the bat shaped robots that had decided to ambush him inside. They swooped back over his head and up, returning to once more hang upside down from the ceiling. Sonic sighed. He would go back to smash them later.

Sonic got up and walked over to another river, where platforms of stone and grass were floating on the surface. Frowning at them and the way they were shifting with the flow of the hot liquid beneath them, he wondered if they would hold his weight without pulling him down into fiery death. _'Well, only one way to find out.'_ He thought to himself, and leaped over onto the first floating foothold. It seemed fine for a moment, then tilted. The heat from the lava caused the dried grass to catch fire, and Sonic yelped, running up the platform and jumping across the remaining three as fast as he could to get to the other side. Where he was promptly attacked by another pair of Buzz Bombers. Dodging the blasts they fired at him, he jumped up and kicked one into the other. Both exploded, their remains falling into the lava, along with the two seals. Sonic gave a dismayed cry, before noticing that the seals were happily playing in the hot liquid without seeming to mind the temperature.

"What the hell?" Sonic frowned, and sighed. "I guess they must be adapted to living in this Zone or something. Strange little things…" he shook his head and walked onwards, seeing a much taller cliff than the last one ahead of him.

This cliff had a much larger entrance, and from the rubble in front of the gaping passage Sonic gathered that it had once been a magnificent marble doorway. Sonic shrugged and made sure that he still had the bag containing the gemstone, before climbing over the collapsed wall and into the cavernous interior. He took to walking, looking around. It wasn't as dark as he had expected it to be in here, as there were torches burning on the walls and windows to allow light to filter in from outside. Mosaics adorned the purple-grey marble walls, and it was warmer than it was outside. Sonic frowned, realising that that meant there was yet more lava down here. Though it made perfect sense, he wasn't happy about it.

Sonic walked down the steps, marvelling at the sheer size of the underground building. It was a good thirty feet from floor to roof when he reached the bottom of the stairs, though he could see that it only lasted for a short way further before the room shrunk to a nine foot high hallway. Looking around, he decided that the best way to go was through this passage, so he set off at a slow jog. There were no windows in the corridor, which made sense as they'd only have ended up looking out into rock anyway, but there was a warm glow from above him. Sonic looked up, and almost turned tail and ran at the sight of the molten rock above him, until he realised that there was no way he'd have been able to get into the corridor if the lava had been able to get through the remarkably strong, glass shield that was the roof. The hedgehog had to stop and admire the work. Whoever had built this place had certainly known what they were doing. Shrugging, he continued through into the next big room.

Hearing a clinking sound, Sonic looked around for the source of it, down at the floor; noticing small, neatly pierced holes; then up, before his eyes widened and he jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding a large, circular, black steel disk, around three foot thick, with another two foot of steel spikes protruding from the bottom. It started to rise back up into the roof, with the same clinking he had heard before, before crashing down again. Sonic gave a relieved sigh, and got to his feet again.

"That was too close."

Sonic walked away from the dropping trap, and frowned ahead. There appeared to be no way forwards. A chain extended from the roof to a circle of black steel on the floor, and the hedgehog tapped his foot.

"So I'm gonna need to move that eh? Lessee…" Sonic walked up to the disk, and walked around it, before tripping over a gap in the floor nearby. Looking back down into it, he noticed a large green panel. "Oh? Wonder what this does…"

Leaning into the hole, he pressed his hands down on the panel, and heard a chinking noise. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the trap rising, but as soon as he removed his hands from the panel it dropped to fill the gap again. He tried again, with the same result. Sitting up, he grumbled. _'This isn't gonna work… I need to find something to hold this down with.'_ Looking around, he saw a piece of masonry hanging loose from the wall, still quivering from the last crash of the disk. He shrugged. _'Well, worth a shot.'_ Sonic got to his feet, and walked over to the wall, putting his hands in the gap between the loose block and the rest of the bricks. He tugged at the brick, which, though loose, was stubborn. When it wouldn't come out of the wall, he resorted to lifting a foot up and planting it on the wall to give him better support. With the extra leverage, the brick eventually came out of the wall, and fell onto the foot below it. Sonic cursed loudly as he pulled his foot free, and scowled at the offending piece of wall. He sighed, and got behind it, pushing it along the floor towards the gap in which the pressure switch was settled. Once the block fell into place, Sonic sat down and rubbed his foot, waiting for the trap to reach the ceiling.

"Stupid bloody thing… Ow." Sonic grumbled at the trap. "I guess as long as that switch is pressed that trap'll stay up. Eh, no worries. I ain't lifting that thing back out of that hole."

Sonic looked around the level he was on again first, before dropping down the gap underneath the suspended trap. He walked to another set of stairs, and frowned, pausing as rows of spikes shot out of holes in the sides of the steps below him. Leaning forward slightly to get a better view, he saw that they were only on every other step, so he waited for the first lot to retract, and then rushed past that step and onto the safe one below it. He repeated this process until he got to the bottom, tripping off of the last step and down a gap, to land on the back of a caterpillar robot, which promptly self-destructed, sending the four segments of its body in different directions, along with Sonic's leaf bag.

When the hedgehog had recovered from the unexpected explosion, he looked down the narrow corridor, which was barely six feet high. Seeing another wall of lava behind a glass shield, he relaxed, until he saw the caterpillar's head hit an already cracked part of the glass, where lava had seeped through and pooled on the floor beneath it. The impact sent large cracks spreading across the already weakened glass, and Sonic backed away, picking up his bag from where it had landed as he did so.

"This. Isn't. Good."

The glass burst, and Sonic turned tail and ran the opposite direction down the corridor, vaulting up over rubble and ducking under buckling sections of the roof, narrowly avoiding being impaled on a set of steel spikes that shot up out of the floor underneath one of the low roof sections. He spied something shining in front of a grated wall ahead, and scooped it up as he leapt for dear life onto a higher platform in a larger room. He waited a moment as the rushing lava smashed into the wall, pausing only to see if he'd need to keep running. The hedgehog was relieved when it stopped rising just at the level of the platform he was currently standing on. _'It must be flowing out of those grates I guess. Lucky.' _He thought to himself, before continuing his trek through the underground ruins. He lifted the glowing object that he had found up as he walked, and flicked an ear at it. It was another stone like the white-grey one he had found in the Green Hill Zone, only this time it was yellow in colour. Sonic put the jewel into the leaf bag with the other one, smiling at the ringing noise they made.

"Okay," he said, once he'd got used to the renewed singing and it quietened again. "Let's go find that Robotnik!"

Sonic rushed through to another large room, one much like the one he had entered in. This one had lava filling the lower floors, and a few broken stone staircases up to higher ground. As he was about to jump onto the nearest one, a column of fire rained down from a vent in the ceiling, and startled him into tripping backwards. When it stopped, he paused and looked up at the source of it. The vent glowed, then opened again, allowing more liquid rock to rain down, some of it splashing onto the edges of Sonic's fur. He yelped in pain and shook it off, backing away to a safer distance. He couldn't retreat though, because of the corridor that had been filled when the glass shielding had broken, which only left him the option of going up to the higher levels. Sonic waited, watching the vent and checking its timing.

"One… Two… Three… Four…" Sonic noted the vent spew forth more fire, then resumed the count. "One… Two… Three… Four… Right, so I have a four second gap? No problem!"

Sonic rubbed the singed fur of his shoulder, waited for the vent to close again, and took a running jump. His powerful kick sent him sailing across the gap to the nearest broken staircase, allowing him to land, check his balance, and jump up to a platform away from the vent before it opened again. He took his time in judging the jump up to the platform above, as if he fell there would be nothing to grab onto.

After making it successfully to the relatively safe room above the lava pit, he smashed open a couple of bat robots to release the squirrels inside, and looked around. There were green metal pistons encased in the same lava-proof glass he'd been admiring earlier. They were moving with the flow of the lava he could see through the glass. Unfortunately this also meant that they filled the room with a source of painful death by crushing. Which wasn't something that Sonic enjoyed the thought of. He looked up, and hurriedly stepped forwards as the one above him started lowering again. Then the next one decided to lower, so he moved forwards again. This continued until he'd made it out of the room, and complained to himself about the civilisation that had built it being a bunch of idiots who hadn't had the common sense to leave a path around the side of the moving power sources.

He looked up, and saw a gap in the wall above him. Before he could leap up towards it, he heard the noise of the chain pulling the traps. Darting a few steps back, he managed to avoid getting impaled on the underside of the steel spikes as it fell down. He jumped on top of the trap, using it as a lift to get up to the open part of the wall, and leapt outside, relieved to be free of the confines of the buried building. Stretching, he grinned at the open air and sunset, and made sure his bag was secure.

"Hmm… I'd better find something better to carry you in. Maybe there'll be somewhere I can get a proper bag soon." Sonic addressed the gemstones, before walking onwards. "Now… What was this way again?" He paused at the edge of a lake of fire, noticing another of those metal prison things on the other side. "Well, I guess I should get the animals out of that thing like I did in Green Hill, now I know they're in them."

Sonic jumped onto the first of the two bare stone platforms that were in the middle of the lake, and had started timing his jump to the next one when he heard the sound of an engine, of sorts, approaching. Pausing, he looked up, only to give a disappointed sigh when he saw Doctor Robotnik approaching in his hovercraft again. This time it appeared to have some sort of cannon attached to the underside of it. The scientist peered over the side at the blue hedgehog, and frowned.

"You again? I'm surprised you made it through the city." Robotnik sounded genuinely impressed. "My boy, why do you persist?"

"I'm not your boy." Sonic was obviously fed up. "Look, I've been running all day and I _demand_ to know what you did to my Zone!"

"You were just following me to ask about that when I already told you the answer?"

"Ain't that what I just said?" Sonic tapped his foot.

"Maybe I'll tell you later." Robotnik made a show of inspecting his gloves.

"Okay then, what are you up to?" Sonic was getting impatient. "First you wreck my Zone, and now you're here in Marble Zone. I bet you've put those stupid robots of yours in the other Zones too!"

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"Answer me!"

"You should be more polite to your elders my boy."

Robotnik pressed something inside the hovercraft, and piloted it over and above Sonic. The hedgehog looked up, wondering what he was doing, then yelped and jumped for the other platform as fire shot from the cannon and burst out over the foothold where he had just been standing. Sonic growled. _'Flame-thrower? That means there's a fuel source inside that machine somewhere. If I can damage it…' _Sonic's frown turned to a smirk again, and he jumped back to the first platform as the hovercraft manoeuvred over him and dropped more fire. Looking at his opponent carefully, Sonic waited until the machine was coming back, then jumped for the underside of it, his sharp spikes tearing into the metal before he bounced off again. He uncurled to land on his feet, and jumped off of the platform as it burst into flames again. Robotnik had felt the damage to his machine, and started to pull up higher as he came back to try drop the fire on the hedgehog again.

Sonic waited, timing his jump, then leaped up, curling into a blue buzz-saw and ripping into the metal. The smell of petrol almost caused him to uncurl, but he managed to hold his spin until his spikes caught something that ricochet him back to the platform. Sonic hurriedly jumped out of the foothold floating in the lava, and darted across the dry grass to the other side, to take shelter from the fire racing up the dripping fuel and to the machine. Robotnik rabidly pressed a series of buttons, causing the fuel tank to drop into the lava before the fire reached him, and it exploded, forcing the hovercraft up into the air, and Sonic to cover his sensitive ears from the noise. As he uncovered them, he heard an annoyed yell.

"I'll get you for that hedgehog!"

"You mean _I'll_ get _you_, Robotnik!"

Sonic watched the scientist regain control of the hovercraft and pilot it off to a partially constructed amusement park Zone a short way away. He growled and pulled himself up to his feet, looking back at the prison machine he was leaning against, before climbing up to the top of it and standing on the plunger-like top to release the Terras from their captivity within. He glanced towards the park-like Zone, then at the sky as it started to get dark.

"Sheesh... I spent so long wandering around inside…" He yawned as he slid off and checked that the precious contents of the leaf bag were intact. "Man I haven't run so much in one day… I still need to follow that Robotnik dude…" He yawned once more, and took the bag off his shoulder, putting it down near the remnants of the prison, before sitting down beside it. "No point doing it… Without rest… Not if he's gonna-" another yawn "-keep attacking me…"

Sonic watched as the first stars appeared over the sky, and stretched, before laying down next to the bag containing the singing stones. The heat from the lava lake nearby kept him warm, and he soon drifted off to sleep. He hadn't realised just how tired he was.

* * *

TBC

_Author's Note:_ Yes, I'm aware I missed out the entire third Act as it were. It's just that I feel the third Act wasn't so much fun to write, y'see. I don't wanna write something that I don't like, as it'll mean that I won't be putting as much effort into the fic. Hope you all understand.


	7. The Marble Village

**Blue Star**

_Disclaimer:_ All characters belong to SEGA/SonicTeam. The inhabitants of Marble Village are mine :P

_Author's Note:_ Argh, be warned, there's a MEGA LOT of dialogue here. That and it's just a filler chapter. Fear it :P

* * *

Part 7: The Marble Village.

_Writhing blue darkness around him. Dark purely because it does not allow the light to penetrate it._

_There! A sound!_

_He cannot move, for he cannot tell where the sound is coming from._

_Something grabs him, it is crushing him._

_And all the while there are voices screaming at him, accusatory and frightened._

_He cannot move, he tries, but he cannot. The blue is fading away, fading dark._

"_**Arrrghhhh!**_"

Sonic sat up as he screamed, panting hoarsely. He was drenched in a cold sweat, despite having rolled so close to the lava pit in his sleep. It took a few moments for his location to register in his mind, and when it finally did he shuffled back away from the burning lake. He looked around for his bag, and found it camouflaged in a small tuft of grass nearby.

The hedgehog picked up the bag and listened, because the jewels' calm, ringing song had changed to a more frantic one. He frowned, looking around, before slinging the bag back over his shoulder. The gemstones calmed down, and resumed their quiet song.

"Were you worried about me?" Sonic muttered to the jewels, and rubbed his head. "Sheesh, what a nightmare… I…" He sighed and shook his head. "I need to move on I guess…"

Sonic got up to his feet, and shook his head to try wake himself up. The soft sunrise washed over the landscape, blending in with the glow from the lava behind him. It bounced off of sharp corners on the Spring Yard Zone ahead, shining brightly and making the metal constructs gleam. The hedgehog had to rub his eyes as he started walking.

"I'm hungry."

-+-+-

Sonic walked into the village that rested at the end of the dried grass of the Marble Zone, and looked around. He wondered about calling out to find out if anyone was there, but decided that if they were, they probably wouldn't appreciate being woken up by a complete stranger who smelt of petrol and carried a bag made out of leaves. Not to mention the fact that he was bright blue and no-one outside of the Green Hill Zone and the Emerald Hill Zone had ever seen him. He didn't doubt that it would cause some gawking, to say the least.

A giggle from behind a couple of the small, marble huts, followed by a scream and more laughing, indicated children playing. Sonic knew from experience how cruel children could be if they saw something odd, so he walked a bit faster. _'Strange.'_ He thought. _'I always heard that no-one lived in Marble Zone. Maybe no-one's gone through those ruins before. Makes sense.'_

"Hey, whassat?!"

'_Oh great. I've been spotted.'_ Sonic grumbled lightly to himself, continuing to walk towards the Spring Yard Zone, and trying to ignore the children who were behind him and yelling questions.

"Oi! Who're you and what are you doing in our village eh?"

"That guy's blue. Why's he blue? Why are you blue mister?"

"He smells funny."

"Hey what's in this bag here?"

Sonic stopped suddenly and whipped a hand round to grab the squirrel's wrist as he tried taking the bag. "I advise you leave other people's belongings where they are."

"Okay okay, I'll leave it!" The squirrel grumbled, rubbing his wrist when Sonic had let go. "What's your problem?"

"I had a very bad day yesterday. And I'm gonna have another bad day today." The hedgehog replied bluntly.

"You're no older than me, what's up with you? Shouldn't you be back home, playing?"

"No. I have… stuff to do. So leave me alone."

Sonic carried on walking, his ears flicking as he heard the children walking behind him. He turned to face the squirrels.

"C'mon guys, I just wanna walk in peace."

"I heard your stomach rumble. Are you hungry?" One of the girl squirrels asked chirpily.

"… Uh…" Sonic shook his head frantically "No…"

"Liar. C'mon, you can eat breakfast with us!" She grabbed his arm, and started tugging him along behind her. "C'mon!"

"But-"

"Don't 'but' my sis mate." The boy who had reached for the bag walked up beside them, whilst the other two squirrels followed them. "You may as well while you're here. And get a bath too, you smell funny."

"Uh, that's very nice of you, but I really have to go."

"Go later. Food and bath now." The girl who was leading him nodded.

-+-+-

"So that's what's up?"

They were all sitting at a table, with the young squirrels positioned as close to Sonic as they could get. Sonic hadn't been too happy about having to have a bath, and especially not in a complete strangers' house, but the petrol soaked into his fur might've ended up as a problem. Sonic had just finished explaining why he'd been passing through the Zone, and it had taken a while, with the squirrels questioning him almost every other sentence. It turned out that they were all related, and their parents were quite happy to let him join them for breakfast. It was the girl squirrel that had pulled him along that had spoken. Her name was Suzie. The male squirrel was Rusty, and the two youngest were twins by the names of Kerri and Lucy.

"Why do you need to go to Spring Yard? They're not even anywhere near finished it yet." Suzie stated.

"I heard from Becky that it's practically a death trap at the moment." Rusty nodded in acknowledgement. "All moving parts and spiky things. Becky said it's not a good idea to go anywhere near it."

"Maybe, but I told ya, I gotta follow this guy who went that way." Sonic sighed and poked at a mug he'd been given. "And I really don't have time to sit around talking."

"You worry too much. From the looks of it he's only going to the least significant zones." Rusty shrugged.

"I don't think that that's what he'll be doing for long."

"Sonic, d'ya know what that big blue fog is?" Kerri finally decided to pipe up, and Sonic blinked at her.

"No… Well, I know what it is, it's Genocide City. But I don't know _what_ it is."

"Uh huh, well it's the ghost of the Marble Hill City!" Lucy joined in. "Apparently, like, Green Hill Zone and Marble Zone used to be one really big city! Uh. Yeah, and then there was all the Blue Star happening and it completely destroyed it, leaving Genocide City behind!"

Sonic frowned, taking in what the squirrel had blurted out in rapid succession. "Oh?"

"Uh huh. Blue Star causes all sortsa trouble!" Kerri nodded. "I heard it ripped up most of the original city, leaving just the ruins in Marble Zone, and turning Green Hill from the forest it once was to the big fields and palm-trees that it is."

"Yeah, and it turned Marble Zone into the lava type place it is now." Lucy chattered again. "That was years and years and years ago though."

"A millennium or so." Rusty shrugged.

"Oh. Well… Sounds about right." Sonic sighed, all this talk about the Blue Star and the Genocide City getting him down. "I… I really have to get going now."

"Awww…. But we wanted to talk to you longer." Suzie whined.

"Yeah, not every day you see a blue hedgehog." Rusty agreed.

"You'll come back to visit, right?" Lucy and Kerri asked loudly, grinning and giggling when Sonic nodded.

"Yeah… Next time I pass this way, I'll say hi." Sonic called out "Thanks for the breakfast!"

"Oh, you're going already?" The mother squirrel walked up to Sonic and handed him a bag "Here, I packed you something to eat later on. Be careful little hedgehog."

"Thank you very much." Sonic bowed politely as he took the parcel, and slipped it into the leaf bag, which he checked still contained both of the singing gemstones. Satisfied that it did, he nodded. "I'll see you all again later!"

"Bye Sonic!" the young squirrels replied in chorus.

Sonic stepped outside, and the family followed him out to wave. The hedgehog grinned at them, and was gone within seconds, leaving them to stare at the dust cloud behind him.

He jumped high into the air occasionally as he ran, and watched the rapidly approaching mass of metal that was Spring Yard Zone. A small smirk played across his face, and he kicked up his speed. _'You think you're getting away from me? Think again, Doctor Robotnik.'_

* * *

-TBC-

Again, my apologies for the sheer amount of dialogue in this chapter. Hopefully it'll be in a much smaller amount now I'm going back onto the game adaptation :P Keep following, I know you won't be disappointed


	8. The Spring Yard Zone

**Blue Star**

Part 8: The Spring Yard Zone

Landing with a clang on the metal walkway, Sonic the Hedgehog peered over the edge of the building he was standing atop. The roof had looked so high up from below, Sonic couldn't resist the urge to see if he could run up the side of the scaffolding to get to it. The surface was made of a reddish metal, and towered over the wide field he had just left.

Sonic gave a sigh as he looked back towards the distant mountains that blocked the Green Hill Zone from view, and reluctantly turned away from the sight, knowing that if he kept looking he'd end up running straight back to make sure that what had happened hadn't been a dream. Instead, the hedgehog concentrated on the sound each foot made as it hit the walkway, purposefully taking him onwards with his journey.

He blinked at the view that was now in front of him. A lengthy expanse of towers and slopes, with the occasional colourful light decorating the area. Sonic frowned, and rolled his eyes, stifling a small laugh despite himself. This wasn't an amusement park, like he'd believed it was all the time, it was a city. Albeit no less under construction. Cranes adorned the landscape and there were steep ledges and large drops everywhere. Sonic blinked as he came up to a field of floating spheres; emblazoned with large yellow stars in red and blue circles; and looked over the nearest one in puzzlement.

"How is it doing that?"

By 'that', the hedgehog meant the way it floated in thin air. There was no sounds of engines or motors, nothing that he could figure made it hover. He waved a hand underneath it, and frowned, repeating his question in a manner that implied that the sphere should answer him. When the metal object merely floated there in response, he pouted and walked around it a few times, before folding his arms and scowling at the mocking yellow star.

"Okay ball-thing, you asked for it."

Sonic backed away from the orb, fully intending to get a run up to jump at it. But he'd lost track of his position when he had circled it, and so ended up reversing into another of the floating spheres. He was bounced forwards suddenly with a yelp, and crashed into the sphere that he had originally been aiming to jump at. These one in turn ricocheted him backwards again, so Sonic jumped to prevent himself crashing into the one behind him once more. Jumping backwards wasn't one of his strong points, however, and he found himself flung vertically into the air as he landed atop the buffer he had been trying to avoid.

He finally managed to curl into a ball to attempt to protect himself, but being thrown between bizarre hovering objects that belonged on a pinball table was not his cup of tea. Pinging noises followed him around this seemingly endless field of bouncers, before he suddenly hit something very hard and very metal. And very not bouncy. Uncurling, he put his hands to his head in an effort to stop it spinning, and muttered curses at the buffers under his breath.

"Ow. Ow ow ow." Sonic growled and struggled to his feet, rubbing his head irritably "I guess it is an amusement park after all. Though anyone who could be amused by that has a very weird mind." Giving one last glare back at the star buffers, he carried onwards. "Well I guess they did get me forwards eventua- arrrrrgh!"

Sonic swore loudly and vividly as he plummeted from the top of the building, falling rapidly down towards the floor below. Which reminded him vaguely of the type of building blocks that children lock together in appearance. He instinctively curled up again, even though he knew that it would not stop him losing the use of a few limbs if he hit that floor. The added spin from the motion only served to speed up his descent, and he grunted as he hit something that gave way beneath him, cushioning his landing.

As he started uncurling, winded from the impact, there was the sudden, snapping sound of a spring, and he found himself airborne again, the wind rushing past his ears at an alarming speed. He twisted around to face the floor again, and it dawned on him. Those rapidly shrinking dots on the floor weren't building blocks, they were large, metal springs. And they were coming closer again. Sonic scrabbled in the air, in some form of an attempt to pull himself towards the next ledge, but only succeeded in throwing himself a few feet further forward. He hit the next spring and was instantly flying upwards again. So he repeated the scrabbling, and as he started to fall, he reached out a hand and caught hold of the wire mesh in the wall.

He yelled out as the rest of his body finished its much shortened descent, his weight pulling at the muscles in his shoulder before he could bring his other hand up to spread the strain out a bit. Not before an alarming pain shot through his wrist though. Sonic swore again, forcing his hand to keep gripping the wire as he kicked the tips of his sneakers into the wide gaps in the mesh. He slowly climbed up the wall this way, and eventually pulled himself over the top of the ledge.

Before he could rest, he had to roll to one side, almost slipping off the walkway again, when a large, pink, spiky robot trundled at him. Sonic stared at it as it stopped at the edge of the building, turned around, and started rolling the other way.

"Oh I've had enough of this."

The hedgehog walked up to the crab-like crawling robot, picked up a loose pipe from a nearby pile on the floor, and swung it at the machine angrilly. The robot's head caved in and Sonic followed the swing through, propelling it over the edge and into the spring field below. He watched as the machine rapidly fell apart, disintegrating more each time it came into view above the edge, until all that was left was the rather perplexed animal that had been inside it. The small pink pig landed with a thud on the ledge, squealed at the large blue hedgehog, and bolted.

Sonic twisted his ears to listen to the sounds of its trotters as it ran away in the direction that he had been going, and shrugged. There had to be a way down if the pig knew where it was going. So he shouldered the pipe and checked to see if his bag was still there, frowning at a small tear in the leaf. He sighed, mentally judging how long it would take for the makeshift bag to get damaged beyond repair.

"Stupid springs. Making me tear my bag. I better see if I can find a proper one as soon as I find more people."

The hedgehog frowned again, having realised that he'd hit on a point. This was a construction site, and so far he had seen neither hide nor hair nor scale nor feather of the workers. He walked to the edge of the rooftop he was standing on, and looked around below, holding onto a neon light fixture to keep his balance. When he didn't spy a single worker, he snorted.

"Maybe it's a holiday..." Sonic muttered quietly to himself, but there was a little, nagging voice in his head. _'Or maybe it's something more sinister'_. He shook that thought away quickly and nodded "Definitely a day off. Or maybe that Robotnik bloke scared them off."

Sonic noted the Buzz Bombers flying in a v-formation below him, and hissed at them, before turning and walking the way the Terra pig had gone. His left wrist was throbbing, and Sonic shifted the pipe over to his other hand to ease off the use of that hand. The hedgehog walked quickly, but cautiously, his ears twisting back and forth as he listened for any sign of danger.

He came to the entrance of a pathway that headed downwards at an angle into the building below, and paused. The red metal floor was smooth and sloping, and Sonic stepped carefully forwards, looking around the corridor curiously. The walls were the same metal as the floor, and there were circular indentations in them. What for, he could not guess.

"Huh?" His emerald eyes caught sight of a small, hand held computer laying in a corner, so he walked over and picked it up, flipping it over in his hand repeatedly to get a better look. "Wonder who's this is... Well I better leave it-"

Before Sonic could finish his sentence, the floor started shaking and a very low rumble was audible. The sound got louder and the floor shook faster, and Sonic turned around, to see a very large blue metal ball tumbling towards him. He yelped and turned, scrabbling for purchase on the slippery floor, before managing to run in the opposite direction.

His feet blurred as the orb rolled at him faster, and the slope got steeper, until Sonic lost his footing and ended up in a similar, albeit much smaller, ball, bouncing down the corridor slightly ahead of the sphere. He crashed into a low wall at the end, and hurriedly uncurled to jump over it. As soon as he did so, the rumbling stopped. Sonic paused for a moment, then decided to risk looking over the wall to see what had chased him like that boulder from that movie he'd seen a while back.

A large, armadillo-like robot stared back at him. Its body was like two half-spheres now it was open, and it even had little gun-metal grey arms and legs. Sonic glared at it for a moment, and stood up, fully intending to wallop the machine with the pipe that had rolled down the hill beside him; once he could reach it that was; when the rolling robot jumped and curled up again, rushing past his head to continue down the corridor.

The hedgehog blinked after it, then sat on the wall for a moment. "Where the bloody hell did that come from?!" he wondered aloud, before looking down at his hand, noticing that he'd kept hold of the computer. Shrugging, he shifted his position and left the pipe where it currently lay, turning his attention to the grey, pocket sized device.

Pulling it open, Sonic looked over the keyboard and screen with interest. Small letters were marked in the cover, a tiny, neat little P and an L. Sonic shrugged, they must be the initials of the person who owned the machine. He frowned at it thoughtfully, then flicked the on switch and watched the screen glow to life. He rapidly found himself disappointed at being faced with a password screen, and grumbled at it, knowing that he had little to no chance of guessing the right code. But, being Sonic, he was determined to see what was in the computer now.

His fingers darted over the keyboard in a random fashion, in some vague attempt to access the handheld's contents. The computer beeped angrily each time he typed a wrong code, to which he responded with a light growl before continuing his efforts. Sonic looked up the slope that he'd come down whilst he typed, and pouted at noticing a step staircase on each side next to the wall. _'Typical' _he thought to himself, and turned his head back to the computer as it made a different beep to the one before.

"Finally!" He exclaimed as the screen showed up a list of files "Now what's in here..."

Sonic scrolled through the contents happily, muttering as he looked over blueprints that he found, including ones for the bumpers and a map of the Zone. He smiled when he looked over the latter one, and made the decision to keep the device, if only to stop himself from getting lost within the maze of buildings that Spring Yard looked to be. He poked at the screen, and grinned at noting it was touch sensitive, before scrolling around the map to get a better look.

"That must be the fastest route through to the other side of the Zone... I'll go that way I think." Sonic frowned at the screen, and checked around to see what else was on the computer, before closing it and slipping it into the bag with the gemstones, which rang quietly again "Okay, let's go."

Getting to his feet, Sonic looked at his wrist where he'd injured it before, and sighed. The joint was slightly stiff to move, but he kept shifting it around anyway, to stop it from locking up. He looked back at the pipe, and reached down to pick it up again, before using it as a makeshift cane to push himself to a standing position, since he really did not want to move. His stomach growled, and he looked hungrily at the lunch the squirrels had given him, before deciding to wait a little longer.

Stretching, he lifted the pipe up to his shoulder and started walking along the route he'd read in the map. Sonic watched around the corridor carefully, listening for any more of those 'Rollers', and kept his grip on the pipe tense and ready to swing if needed. He stepped out of the corridor and into another open area, with some more buffers floating overhead. Sonic shook his head at them, deciding instead to walk around them. As he did he noticed the edge of the floor nearby.

"Oh flipping hell, what now?" The hedgehog was already annoyed with the Zone, and wanted out as fast as possible. He knew Starlight Zone was just past the Spring Yard, and beyond that was a large power-plant that had been built around a year previously. And he had a suspicion who built it.

Before he could curse again, a large, turquoise block lowered in front of him, drawing level with the edge he was on. Looking up, Sonic saw more of the blocks moving in a line, ascending and descending in a vertical tunnel. Squinting to see more, he caught sight of another ledge high above the one he was on. The platform rose before he could step on it, so he watched it with interest. When it came back down, he walked onto it, ad waited for it to rise again. It stopped about halfway up the tunnel, so he stepped on the next one as it lowered. The third stopped just above stepping height for him, so he jumped onto it instead, then ran out onto the higher ledge.

He leaned on the pipe as he looked back to the column below, and snorted. The designs for those lifts had been inside the pocket computer, so he'd been expecting to see them somewhere, just not so soon. Sonic mentally insulted the lack of regular footpaths, and continued on his way. He walked into another covered area, this time it was a flat tunnel, so he wasn't so worried about the prospect of fleeing from another Roller. The roof lowered abruptly, coming to a mere three foot above his head, so he held the pipe horizontally to prevent catching it on the ceiling. His progress went well, until a red crab robot, like the ones he'd seen in the Green Hill Zone, blocked his route and fired its plasma balls at him.

Sonic took a step backwards and watched the attack fizzle out on the floor, before throwing the pipe javelin-style into the machine's head. It sparked, then exploded, leaving a small rabbit sitting in a daze on the floor. Sonic walked past the hapless animal and picked up the pipe again, then continued down the corridor.

Which started to slope again.

Sonic shuffled over to the steps on the side before he slipped, then cautiously walked downwards some more. As the incline steepened, he pressed against the wall to let another Roller pass him by, not in the mood to run again. What he hadn't been prepared for was the robot sharply turning on the spot and powering up the hill towards him. A startled yelp preceded his speeding back the way he came, followed by the robot in hot pursuit. As soon as he was out in the open again, he leapt frantically for a bloating buffer above him, dropping the pipe in the process, and let it spring him up to cling onto a ledge in the wall.

The Roller uncoiled and Sonic stared at the luminous green gemstone it held between its stubby limbs. The hedgehog licked his lips, and dropped down towards it, aiming a kick for its head. The Roller rapidly rolled out of the way and Sonic ended up using some very colourful language as he ended up tripping over by landing at an awkward angle. He scrabbled to his feet just as the robot barrelled towards him again, and managed to leap aside before he was flattened. He noticed his pipe laying on the floor nearby, and dashed towards it, willing his legs to get him out of the path of yet another charge.

As the Roller hit the nearby wall with a heavy-sounding crash, Sonic gathered up the pipe and sprung up to his 'safe' perch on the wall. The spherical robot span in circles below him, unable to launch itself high enough to reach him, before it uncurled again. At seeing the jewel again, Sonic propelled himself off the wall once more, twisted in mid air, and threw the pipe down into the weakly protected inside of the machine. The pipe crumpled with the force of the blow, and Sonic watched the robot explode in an impressive fireball, and raised a hand in front of his face, catching the glowing jewel as it flew through the air at him.

Sonic looked at the stone's pulsing light, and put it into the bag with the others. The leaf probably wasn't going to last much longer, but he'd replace it when he could. He nudged the pig with his foot, urging it to be on its way, before heading back into the corridor at a run.

He sped down the angled corridor, before jumping over a spiked flail as it swung out of cuts in the floor. Skidding to a stop just past it, he watched it circle a few times, and wondered what bizarre mind would put those blatantly dangerous things in such a small corridor. Sonic shook his head, deciding once and for all that the person in charge of development was a nutcase. He sat down on a raised section of floor, and took out his lunch.

Sonic chewed thoughtfully on the peanut butter sandwich, realising he didn't have any idea what he was going to do once he made Robotnik explain what happened properly. There was no way he could repair the Green Hill to the home he remembered it as, and there was no way...

No way to bring his family back.

Sonic finished the mouthful of bread and lowered his hand into his lap, suddenly feeling very not hungry at all as the true scale of what had happened dawned on him. He looked past the rotating spikes with a silent stare, in the direction he had come from. He'd always heard that Genocide wouldn't venture into pre-existing Zones. So why had it come into Green Hill? Sonic felt it was something to do with Robotnik, but couldn't figure out the connection.

What was he going to do once he caught him? The guy was up to something, that much was certain. And he'd attacked an innocent village for no reason. Sonic growled lightly. What he was going to do didn't matter. He was going to make him pay for such a crime.

With that, Sonic stuffed the rest of the sandwich into his mouth, turned one hundred and eighty degrees, and started running down the corridor, dodging side to side to avoid large spiked balls, and jumping to use the Zone's naming springs to get to higher areas. He charged forwards, bouncing from buffers and shredding through robots, until he came to the edge of the Zone. Ahead he could see the towering green structures that made up the Starlight Zone, but more importantly, directly in front of him, Robotnik was hovering. The scientist noticed the determined glare of the hedgehog as he stood on the bridge between the Zones, and laughed.

"Hell bent on destroying me still, my boy?"

"You bet, Robotnik." Sonic flexed his wrists before pulling his fists up in front of his face. "C'mon, gimme your best shot!"

"Now why would I want to do that, when-" he laughed again as Sonic was knocked aside by a Roller "-my Badniks will do it for me?"

Sonic muttered something under his breath, and jumped as the Roller came back. He caught his toe on the speeding robot, and fell forwards, hitting his jaw on the brick bridge, whilst his bag snapped off his shoulder and skidded along the floor. The gemstones and computer fell from it, and spread across the bridge. Sonic scrabbled to his feet, rubbing his chin, and rushed for the bag. Robotnik on the other hand, had different ideas.

"You have Chaos Emeralds?!" he yelled at Sonic, his gentlemanly voice dissipating in an instant. "Give them to me!"

"Like hell I will!" Sonic scooped the Emeralds into the leaf, grabbed the computer, and turned to face the oncoming Roller "Oh no, you ain't getting me again!"

As the Badnik rolled towards him once more, Sonic leapt to one side and swung his foot hard at it, knocking it off its intended course, and off the edge of the bridge. Whilst Sonic clasped the bag close to him, he glared up at Robotnik, who hammered at buttons in his machine. A large, steel spike slid out from the bottom, and he piloted the craft over to Sonic.

"I want those Emeralds, and you are going to give them to me!"

"No way! Whoa!"

Sonic backflipped away as the hovercraft crashed down to where he had stood a moment before, then raised up, pulling a segment of the bridge with it. The hedgehog gaped at the large hole now in the pathway, and looked back up at the scientist, before being forced to scrabble backwards once more as Robotnik pulled up more of the bridge, shattering it as the spike withdrew.

"Stop moving you annoying little rodent!"

"Not while you got that thing!"

Sonic jumped over the gap this time as Robotnik smashed yet more of the bridge, and nearly lost his footing. He managed to fall forwards onto the solid stone, but when Robotnik plunged into the brick in front of him, he found himself forced to jump. He leaped over the hovercraft, and onto the safer side of the bridge, as the brick he'd been standing on dropped down into the chasm below.

What Sonic hadn't seen, however, was the large fan that was on the other side of the bridge. As the brick beneath the hovercraft shattered, Robotnik pointed a remote control at it, and the blades whirled into life.

Sonic yelled and ran in an effort to not be pushed over the cliff...

Robotnik pressed another button on the remote...

The fan increased its speed...

And Sonic was sent flying through the broken bridge, clinging stubbornly the the Emeralds and falling into the depths below with a scream.

Robotnik laughed and clapped his large hands together. "Now that little pest is out the way, I can finish what I started."

TBC


	9. The Labyrinth Zone

**Blue Star**

Part 9: The Labyrinth Zone

Sonic awoke with a start, immediately finding himself resting partway on a ledge with his legs hanging in the water below it. As he grabbed hold of a nearby carving on the wall, and pulled his wet limbs out of the warm water, he shivered, trying to remember what had happened, and, more importantly, where he was.

The room he was in was more of a narrow, vertical tunnel, filled with the sound of dripping water and the smell of old stone. The ceiling had a hole in it, through which vines and roots hung. Sonic rubbed his head, puzzled. Hadn't he just been in Spring Yard? What was he doing here, in this horribly small space that was half filled with water? He looked down at the still liquid, then back up at the hole, then around the walls, before shivering again and pulling his knees up under his chin.

He couldn't see a way to climb upwards to the hole, and even if he did, he remembered that he'd fallen a fair way before that, so it would be pretty much useless to try. Especially carrying the, what had the scientist called them? Chaos Emeralds? Carrying those would make it next to impossible.

"Oh no! Where are they?!" Sonic cried out as he realised he had no leaf bag, no computer, and no singing stones to hand. He hastily looked around the ledge that he was sitting on, brushing the occasional length of plantlife that had managed to catch any light that filtered through the hole above. When he couldn't find any of the items he had fallen in with, he gave a dismayed wail, and fell over sideways to lay with his cheek against the moss-covered stone.

Great, not only was he stuck down a hole filled with water, he was stuck there without anything to do. Sonic whined and shuffled towards the edge a bit, looking miserably down through the surface of the surprisingly clear water. How was he going to get out of here? He trailed a gloved hand on the surface of the water, watching the ripples as they followed his fingers. A small fish seemingly came out of no-where to investigate this new object in its space, and promptly nibbled at the cotton in a curious manner. Sonic looked at the little red fish and pulled his hand out of the water, startling it into swimming away. He watched it as it sped downwards, followed by a little trail of bubbles, before passing through a large gap in the wall. By which a shining stone lay atop some ancient rubble.

"There it is!" Sonic scanned more of the lower level, spying the other two gemstones and the computer. He hesitated, looking up towards the hole once more. "I could just leave them... But..."

The song of the Emeralds was just reaching him through the water, and he found himself turning back. His fur stood on end as he realised he was not in control of his feet, and they were taking him off the edge of the plinth. Sonic mentally yelled at his legs to co-operate and take him back from the edge, but they weren't going to listen to him, and he soon found himself deep in the water, looking into the hole the fish had gone through. He splashed back up to the surface and spluttered, cursing his fondness for shiny things.

Thinking back to how that hole had looked more like a passageway, complete with carved walls, he frowned to himself, and resigned to the fact that he had just as much chance of getting out that way as any other one. Even if he didn't much like the option of going back underwater again. As long as there weren't any sharks down there, he decided it should be okay. A moment more hesitation, before Sonic took as large a breath as he could, diving down towards the floor. He planted his feet on the ground, gaining his bearings and allowing his eyesight to adjust to the different medium they were looking through, before purposefully swimming over to the nearest Chaos Emerald.

He picked up the stone, then paddled over to the next one. As he reached for the third, he realised he had nowhere to put them, so he tucked the first two in between the long quills on his head, and picked up the third one from its position underneath the remains of the leaf bag. With his other hand he grabbed hold of the pocket computer, not knowing if it would still work, before he kicked his way back up to the surface. He refreshed the air in his lungs, and made sure the Emeralds were tightly wedged between his spikes, then dived back under before he could have a chance to reconsider again.

Sonic's powerful legs propelled him through the still water relatively easily, and he looked inside the passage. It was clear, and appeared to open into a wider room beyond it, so he moved forwards into it. However, he was unprepared for the current rushing down from a large crack in the roof, and so was forced through the corridor at an alarming pace. Once he was propelled into the large room on the over side, he swiftly splashed up to the surface, and shook his head, even though it wasn't going to do much to dry his quills.

"I think I'm going to hate this place..." Sonic muttered, before swimming over to the nearest ledge. It took him several tries to climb onto it, due to it being slightly out of his reach, but eventually, after diving under the water and kicking his way vertically as fast as he could, he managed it.

He scrabbled back to his feet, using a nearby gargoyle that was perched on the edge of the plateau to assist him, and examined the gemstone in his hand. Not a scratch was to be seen on its surface, and the same applied to the other two when he pulled them from between his spikes and examined them. He placed them on top of the gargoyle, watching how they balanced atop eachother without so much as shifting to one side.

"These... are no ordinary stones..." Was the understatement of the century, he realised as he said it. They sang, they glowed, they appeared to have some sort of method to attract him, more than any of the shiny objects he'd been obsessed with before. And apparently they had their own name. As he rolled the words around his mouth again, the Chaos Emeralds chimed to him.

Sonic left them balanced in their tower on top of the gargoyle, and looked at the computer again, wondering if it still worked. He flipped it open, having left it on so that he didn't have to enter the password again, and laughed, surprised that it seemed to be unaffected by the water. He browsed through it, and managed to find out where he was. A place written in the history books as Nereid City, but now known as the Labyrinth Zone. Sonic frowned, not liking the new name at all.

He flicked through the information, finding out that the Spring Yard and the Starlight Zones had been built over it because Labyrinth had proved too difficult to negotiate safely, as well as someone thinking it would be a good idea to build giant theme parks and cities to attract tourism to South Island. Whilst Sonic wasn't too happy with the idea of having complete strangers romping all over the Island, he was a bit preoccupied at the moment with the whole dilemma of finding himself underground in a partially submerged city.

He folded the apparently watertight computer shut once more, picked up the Emeralds from their place on top of the gargoyle, and started walking along the platform he was on. The gemstones remained balanced in their tower on his hand, and he frowned thoughtfully. Carrying them around like this was going to prove awkward, but with his bag shredded he didn't know what to do.

Then he spotted a narrow passage leading into the wall nearby. A tall statue almost hid it from view, so if he hadn't been as attentive as he was he would have missed it. He peered into the darkened crevice, but couldn't see due to the glow from the Emeralds throwing it into deep shadows. Looking around, and not seeing anything to worry about, he stepped into the passage and walked long it, watching the three coloured lights from the stones in his hands illuminating the moist walls. His footsteps echoed, the sound mingling with that of dripping water, and of his breathing.

The passage seemed to go on forever, until suddenly he found himself standing in a large, dark room, which was lit by luminescent fungus that grew on the walls and across the floor. He stepped between the large carpets of it that spread out from the perimeter of the room, heading over to the other side. Some anomaly in the glowing carpet drew his attention away from the doorway he saw on the wall opposite him, and he frowned.

Footprints.

That meant that someone else had been here recently, because the floor was smeared with the liquid that the carpet mushrooms contained. It was in orderly lines in and out of the door ahead of him, and there had been a large smear where the person had turned around in a hurry.

Sonic flicked his ears in all directions, listening for any signs of anyone nearby, but only heard the steady drip-drip-drip of water from the ceiling. The silence was eerie, even the Emeralds weren't singing. The hedgehog swallowed the lump in his throat down, and resumed walking towards the door, albeit more cautiously.

He kept listening for sounds of life, such as breathing or footsteps, and still heard nothing. So he braved his way forwards, and stepped through the doorway.

Another narrow passage greeted him, wider than the last, but just as dark. Sonic placed his feet slowly and quietly, walking soft-foot like a cat; a trick he had learned from his family. His fur stood on end, and the bladed quills stiffened, as he heard a rushing sound ahead of him. His ears flicked forwards, and the sound, amplified by the tunnel he was walking along, suddenly became clear to him.

It was the familiar sound of rushing water, of waterfalls. Sure, it sounded slightly different, being underground and having a slight echo to it, but the hedgehog would recognise that noise anywhere. He grumbled, and stepped out of the oncoming doorway, into a large room with an artificial river cut deeply into the floor. Through this ran the swift river he had heard, its surface surprisingly clear, apart from where it sped past large pieces of broken masonry that had fallen from the ceiling and come to rest in the crafted channel. There the water spun white as the current broke apart and collided with itself.

Sonic stepped up to the edge of the river, then walked parallel to it, first heading upstream until he saw that it was emerging from a low archway in a solid wall; obviously built for such a purpose; and upon discovering that he could not walk any further that way, he turned right and walked downstream instead. He looked tentatively at the rushing water beside him, and caught a glimpse of a reflection from the opposite bank. Something had just ducked around a dividing wall and out of his sight before he could look up.

Freezing on the spot, the hedgehog stared over the river, tucking the Emeralds into his quills for safety, and clutching the pocket computer in his left hand. He flicked his ears around, listening, before stepping backwards, away from the edge of the river channel.

"Who's there?"

Silence.

"Come on, who is there?! I'm sorta... lost and I need help and I don't like people sneaking around out of my view!"

Sonic listened carefully, frowning when the silence continued. 'Hmm... maybe I was seeing things...' he thought, before turning and resuming his track downstream.

"You're just a child, aren't you?"

The slightly foreign accent in the female voice startled Sonic into spinning one hundred and eighty degrees on the spot, and he blinked at the brunette human in surprise. So there _had_ been someone there after all! He bristled anxiously, which wasn't overdoing things, considering that his last run in with a human had ended with him falling down a very deep hole. This one had a sarcastic smirk and her gloved hands were settled on her slim hips. She was wearing a turquoise sleeveless top and khaki shorts, dark brown leather boots, and completed her outfit with a pair of blue sunglasses and a PDA attached to the belt at her waist. Her long hair was pulled back over her shoulder in a plait, and she raised an eyebrow at Sonic.

"Don't think I've ever seen a blue hedgehog before."

"Well... You... Uh... Have now!" The muscles in Sonic's legs were twitching, wanting to make him turn and run, but his brain was telling him to find out who this was.

"Why are you down here? It's a lot safer above the ground, in the Zones you know." The human spoke softly, yet the amused smirk remained.

"I... fell down here..." Sonic frowned, thinking about how the Zones he'd seen hadn't been so safe. And he said so, rapidly. "I've been running straight for several days, and this dude up there went and dropped me down here, so I don't think it's much safer up there at all. Except for all the water here... I don't get on well with water..." He shuddered.

"I can tell, you do seem to keep away from that channel there." She pointed at the river casually, and Sonic once again tried to place her accent, failing miserably at having not heard all that many.

"Well, um... ma'am... what are you doing down here, if you know it's safer up there or stuff?"

"Hmm? Oh, I love it down here. I'm more at home in these ancient ruins than I am in my own house." She stepped along the edge of the river, walking the path that Sonic had been heading down. "So what's your name?"

_'Don't give your name to strangers, don't give your name to strangers!'_ Sonic's brain recited at him, but he decided to ignore it. "Sonic Spiritpaw..."

"Ah. Oh yes, I've heard of you. Why didn't I put two and two together?" She chuckled at his befuddled expression. "Oh don't look so confused, news spreads. You're that hedgehog who was born on the Blue Star night, correct?" When Sonic merely blinked, the human continued. "You see, I love reading up on legends and myths, and then going to check out their origins and whether they're real or not. Now, a star is a little beyond my reach, but it's a pleasure to meet you, Sonic."

"Uh..." Sonic shook the hand that she had extended, still looking puzzled. "Likewise... Um..."

"Lara Croft."

"Miss Croft..." Sonic flicked an ear again, feeling more relaxed now that he knew her name.

"Please, just call me Lara. I'm not one for titles and formalities." She nodded. "So, you say you're lost, correct?"

"Um... Yeah."

"Well, whereabouts do you want to go down here?"

"I want to get back up to the Starlight Zone." Sonic frowned. "But I have no idea where I'm going."

"That's obvious. Okay, if you go down this stream you'll reach a point where the ground slopes, and this river becomes a water-slide. Follow that down, and you'll hit a lower level eventually. You're not going to like this, because it involves swimming through the majority of the City." Lara raised an eyebrow again. "You can swim, right?"

"Yeah... As long as there aren't any nasty things down there..."

"Ah... Well watch yourself down there. You'll have to be able to swim very fast at points... Or have some sort of weapon..." Lara smiled at the worried expression. "I was joking, don't worry about it."

"That wasn't funny."

Without apologising, she continued. "You'll have to follow the current sometimes, I know I had to anchor myself to get this way, but it should be easier getting back. And if you keep following the flow of the water, eventually you'll reach a tall room. You can climb up the sides of it to get to the level nearest the surface. There's a stairwell from there that goes up. You'll be roughly east of the Starlight Zone, but I'm sure you'll find your way from there."

Sonic paused,noting it all down mentally, before nodding. "Okay. Thanks Lara."

"It's alright Sonic. Oh! Before you go!"

Sonic paused midstep and looked back at the human, watching her pull her small rucksack from her shoulders. From inside it, she withdrew a bundle of cloth, and unfolded it into a similar bag. This was offered to the hedgehog, who took it with surprise.

"You don't want to lose those gemstones of yours. No point picking up treasures if you're going to misplace them on the way."

"Um... Thank you..." Sonic pulled the Emeralds from between his spikes, and looked at them, before placing them into the bag, which he slipped over his back, shuffling it carefully into place between his quills. Reaching over his shoulder, he put the pocket computer in the top too, and jumped a few times on the spot to make sure that it was secure. "Really... Thanks." He smiled.

"Not a problem." Lara put her own backpack on again. "Just be careful Sonic. I'd like to meet you again someday."

"Sure!" Sonic mimicked Lara's smirk, then resumed his trek downstream, whilst the human headed into the doorway he had emerged from. As her footsteps echoed into the distance, he thought he heard a quiet "Carrying ... Chaos Emeralds ... Risky...", but the slightly tinny male voice soon was soon gone with Lara's footsteps.

Sonic strolled along the corridor, a bit more relaxed now that he knew the way back to the surface, yet rather upset that he'd have to go through more water to get there. The rushing of the river alongside him changed tone, and he soon reached the top of the slope that the explorer had told him about.

The roof of the room had towered above, and sunlight and vines spilled down from small holes in the ceiling, reminding him of the small room that he had first found himself in. Except that this one was much larger. He looked around the walls, examining the primitive bird carvings and the gargoyles adorning them. Whilst the walls nearby were full of crumbling gaps and broken masonry, and were presumably the method which Lara had used to climb up, the slope in front of him was strangely smooth, and had an odd scent to it. Sonic crouched down and ran his hand over the surface, frowning at the way that the glove simply slid over it.

"Some sort of wax? Either some bored nut-case had far too much time on their hands, or the people who built this place would've made a fortune in the crayon business." Sonic snorted at the surface, and stood up straight again. "Now, do I jump in the water or skate down the sides? Either way, this is gonna be one hell of a ride..."

The hedgehog sighed, and jumped onto the slope, and his shoes immediately lost traction, resulting in him sliding downwards at an increasing pace on his rear. The edge of the slope rapidly came into view, as did a second slope below. The sound of a waterfall roared ahead of him, and he swallowed nervously, before slipping sideways and into the water. The added current threw him clear of the slope, and straight into the deceptively deep channel on the second one. He was pulled along it, and tumbled over the edge, landing with a very soggy and heavy thud on the flat floor below him.

Sonic took a moment to regain his breath, wincing as he pushed himself up and his wrist cracked again. He muttered to himself discontentedly, and rubbed the once again painful joint as he got to his feet. Ahead of him the waterfall crashed down into large pool, which ran from the edge of the platform that he had landed on, to the wall opposite. Large turquoise and purple gemstones encrusted the lowest reaches of the brickwork, extending down below the surface of the water for a short distance.

He could see something moving below the surface, but assumed that it was just a fish again. Once he'd massaged the protesting out of his wrist again, he stepped backwards, took a deep breath, and ran and dived into the water. Sonic immediately started kicking himself forwards, and hurriedly scrabbled to one side as a large spear thrust up from the ground below, stopping just where he'd been a split second beforehand. He stared at it, wide-eyed, then remembered that he only had a limited air supply, and so pressed onwards.

Bubbles stirred from a crack in the ground below him after he passed several more spears, and he paused to watch them as they floated upwards to burst against the ceiling of the tunnel ahead of him. Several grew to around his size, and he prodded at them playfully as they passed. Then one rose up, carrying a red Emerald in it. Sonic instantly dived at the jewel, bursting through the bubble and pulling the air from it in as he inhaled from the shock. But the gemstone was in his hands, and he wasn't so low on air any more. So he slid the Chaos Emerald into the bag with its cousins, and resumed powering through the water.

That was, at least, until something grabbed his leg.

Sonic twisted around, and found himself staring at a hedgehog-sized robot with a drill cone for a face, and a red cap on its head. Sonic swung his free foot at it, but couldn't get enough force behind the kick to dislodge the machine's grip on his limb. Another one burst out of the floor to one size, clouding the water with debris and grabbing one of his arms. At this, Sonic started to panic, twisting and kicking, punching and biting at the robots in an effort to get them to let go. This was _not_ a situation he wanted to be in again, and it was most _definitely_ not one he intended on staying in. Bubbles swirled around the three figures, as Sonic twisted, managed to get his free foot onto the floor, and threw himself into the natural balled up position that hedgehogs could achieve.

The robots collided together in a bubbly explosion, which Sonic paid no heed to. All the struggling had made him blow far too many bubbles for safety, and he was more concerned with getting to the surface. He sped along the tunnel as fast as swimming would let him, and a fresh current caught him, ripping him along the narrowing passage, before violently throwing him out into open air.

It seemed, to him, that he hovered there, motionless, for an age, but he was soon beaten by gravity and pulled fast down into another lake, hitting it at such an angle that it tore the breath from his body and he sank. It took him a split second to realise it, but as soon as he did he scrabbled back up to the surface, and clambered onto the pathway that took up one side of the room. He frowned.

"Urg... All the places down here look exactly alike."

Sonic lay back for a while, waiting for his breath to return properly. He glared at the distant ceiling, watching large, dragonfly-like creatures dart between the vines and crystals. _'This is all your fault.'_ he thought at no one in particular.

Once he felt capable of moving again, he did so, to be rewarded by his sodden quills flicking forwards and hitting him in the eyes from the sudden movement. They were flicked back behind his shoulders soon enough, but it didn't stop Sonic from swearing loudly and profusely, with his hands on his face and kicking his feet in pain. He blinked rapidly as he took his hands away, mentally noting to himself to _never_ lean forwards with wet spikes again.

"Ow." He squinted around the ledge with one eye open, before getting up and walking through a small archway, to find himself in a tall room, just as Lara had mentioned. "Ah, so now it's a case of going up huh? Well that shouldn't be so-"

Then two things happened: He noticed the rotund Doctor Robotnik in his hovercraft, running a hand over a panel in the wall. And a large stone door slammed down behind him in the archway, cutting off any form of retreat he might have had. He watched the scientist as he turned around, looking thoroughly surprised at seeing the blue hedgehog alive and well.

"Oh ho! Sonic my boy, so glad you could make it! I was just investigating these ingenious defence systems!"

"For the last time, Robotnik. I _ain't_ your boy!" Sonic growled at him.

"Oh come now, why the harshness? You're perfectly fine, I haven't hurt you or anything. Apart from the fact that you look like a drowned rat, there shouldn't be anything for you to worry about." Robotnik's moustache twitched as he laughed.

"I'm not a rat either!"

"Yes yes, of course."

"Oi! Where do you think you're going?!" Sonic cried after the scientist as the hovercraft ascended through the tunnel at speed.

"Away from here. As much as I'd like to see these systems in action, I don't wish for them to be used on me."

Robotnik's chortle echoed piercingly back down the tunnel at Sonic, who frowned thoughtfully, trying to figure out what he meant by that. His questions were soon answered, as cold water splashed around his ankles, spilling up through grates in the flooring. Sonic yelped and darted to the wall, jumping and pulling himself up onto a narrow ledge. He noted the speed at which the water was rising, and realised that he wouldn't be able to judge his climbing. He had to get out of that tunnel.

Something was churning the water below him, and he caught glimpses of fans within the walls as he sprang up the protruding blocks of masonry. If he fell into that water, it would be impossible to get to the surface. The thought forced him upwards.

He jumped from one block to a particularly high one, misjudging it, but he managed to scrabble onto it from the position precariously dangled from the edge by his fingertips. From there he looked around. _'Where next?!'_ he thought hastily, the next plinth was out of his reach. But then he noticed a spear as it shot from the wall, retreated, then shot out again. Sonic jumped up as it extended a third time, balancing on the narrow staff for a split second, before using the extra spring in the shaft to aid his jump to the ridge. He shimmied sideways along the narrow edge, and jumped to grab the nearest gargoyle that signalled the top of the chamber.

The water spilled across the floor of the open room, and Sonic scooped up several loose rocks. Sunlight poured in from gaping holes in the roof, and Robotnik was waiting near one in his hovercraft.

"You're trickier than I counted on, hedgehog."

"Get off South Island, Eggman!"

Sonic threw a piece of debris at the hovercraft, followed by another, followed by another. Each stone was like a missile, rocketing through the base of the hovercraft and out the other side. Robotnik glowered at the hedgehog over the rim of his glasses, and manouvered his machine out of one of the holes.

"My name, hedgehog, is Robotnik!"

"Yeah. Whatever."

Sonic strolled over to the machine nearby. Several partly finished drill-nosed robots lay beside it, along with a few fish-shaped ones. The fed up hedgehog noted the prison device was already broken, and reasoned that Lara had thought it hadn't fit in enough with the ruinous surroundings. He looked around, and saw the staircase nearby, and so walked over to it, up, and out of the ruins.

The grassy area was quite wide, with the green structures of the Starlight Zone ahead. Sonic looked around. He sighed, and noted the position of the sun. It was getting near sunset. The hedgehog sighed drowsily, and set off at a slow jog, the wind chilling his body as it pulled the water from his fur.

Well, what better time of day to visit the Starlight Zone than at twilight?

-TBC-

* * *

_Author's Note:_ Lara Croft is © Edios. I dunno, it just seemed fitting to cameo her in this chapter :P Also, the voice that Sonic heared as she left was that of Zip, her liason back at Croft Manor from Tomb Raider Legend. Well, I hope you liked this part, it was quite a trial for me to write. I HATE the Labyrinth Zone XD

As always Read and Review, constructive criticism is welcome, and add the story to your alert list so you'll know when the next chapter is updated as soon as it is ;)


	10. The Star Light Zone

**Blue Star**

Part 10: The Starlight Zone

Sonic shook the dizziness away rapidly as he got back up to his feet, and glared at the remains of the robot that had ambushed him as soon as he had set foot into the Zone. It _had_ been a roughly spherical shaped thing with two legs and a single antenna, but it had decided to self-destruct when Sonic had nudged it with his toe.

Okay, so maybe it hadn't ambushed him. But Sonic didn't need to admit that to himself. So he dusted his fur down and started walking along the silvery pathways, between the towering structures that were still under construction. The Starlight Zone was, apparently, even less complete than the Spring Yard Zone had been. Bright orange warning cones and scaffolding were the predominant decorations, along with more of those giant fans here and there. And grey objects that reminded Sonic of...

"See-Saws!"

Sonic dashed over to one and bounded around it to get a better look. He nodded at the pivoted flat platform, but frowned at the large, spiked ball on one end of it. Now, how pointless was that? The young hedgehog prodded the ball, then looked upwards. Well.... That was certainly an interesting platform potentially looming above him... Perhaps he could use the see-saw to get up there? The metal ball seemed heavy enough, and besides, it always worked in cartoons, right?

With an excited whoop, Sonic turned back to the device, grinning eagerly at the empty end. The key question was what direction the ball would fly in, however. If he wasn't careful, he might get hit in the face by it, and he was sure that wouldn't be pleasant. But you never got anywhere without trying, of course! So he leaped into the air, and dropped down onto the free end of the see-saw, which lowered under his weight, throwing the spiked orb skywards. Sonic watched it, noted it was heading for his end, and hurriedly ran over to the other side.

The steel ball of spikes crashed down heavily on the spot where he had been but moments ago, sending the hedgehog sailing upwards through the air. He twisted, and in doing so managed to alter his direction enough to land on the edge of the interesting platform. Which he noted, once he'd finished celebrating his perfect ten-point landing to an invisible audience, wasn't so interesting after all. In fact, it was pretty much the same as the platform he'd just come from.

How boring.

Sonic snorted at the metal plating, almost insulted that it had dared to be boring when he'd expected there to be at least _something_ interesting up here. To punish it, he stamped a foot. Hard. And proceeded to swear as it stamped back.

"Ngh, okay Sonic, don't damage the feet," he growled at himself, as he hopped on one foot and rubbed the other, "you need those."

When the pain finally decided to subside, the hedgehog straightened up, looking around for a clue on where next to go, before focusing on an interesting curve to the platform that he was on. He walked up towards it, craning his head up to follow its curve vertically. Sonic tapped his chin thoughtfully, then turned to look back at the edge that he'd landed on, counting the paces as he walked back to it. He came to the conclusion that it was a pretty short platform, but...

He backed right up to the edge, and started jogging on the spot, his legs speeding up quickly, before he altered the angle of one foot to suddenly charge towards that upwards curve. For a moment he thought it might not work, but kept his feet pounding, accelerating rapidly until his momentum threw him up above the top edge of the curve. He grinned, pleased with himself, but this time, instead of allowing himself to stop, he flipped over in the air and pedalled his feet rapidly in preparation for landing.

The moment his leading leg touched the silvery metal, it left it again, and the second one touched then left a split second later. What, for a normal person, would have been a fast tap-tap-tap, became a resonating rumble of shaking metal with the pace that Sonic moved. He shot along the walkway, and up through a loop that had been built into it for some reason. It reflected the twilight stars in a strange way around its curvature, that confused Sonic for a moment, which had led to the running the loop before he had realised it was there. At the base was another large fan, which happened to be turned on.

His legs spun, the rubber on the bottom of the shoes screeching as they fought against being pushed backwards, but he continued to charge at the fan, his mind racing through possibilities of getting around it, finally starting to settle on one. Just as the fan abruptly stopped. Surprised, he rocketed past it, the following boom caving the machine's blades in. He turned his head briefly to look, but that moment's distraction led him into crashing into the scaffolding ahead of him with a resounding clatter of heavy metal pipes and wooden platforms.

Sonic cried out, finding himself squashed beneath them, and wriggled madly. He stopped as he twisted his injured wrist again, and pain shot up through his arm, followed by a matching shock from his leg. He pulled his good arm free, using it to shove a plank from his head, letting it fall away from the pile. Sonic turned as much as he could, to look over his shoulder at the pile atop him, and wailed. There was no way he was going to shift that himself! None!

"... Oh no!"

Another of those little exploding robots was approaching him, slowly but surely. He tried removing the pipes from his back with his free arm in desperation. The ticking, ball shaped machine stopped nearby, and the fuse lit itself. Sonic's eyes widened as the wire lessened rapidly, and tucked his head in as best as he could, covering it with his arm. The robot tick-ticked as the fuse finished burning, as its final warning, before it exploded.

The hedgehog screeched as shrapnel shot across his body, shredding his diamond-bladed quills and ripping gashes in his arm, shallower ones across his head where the arm could not protect it. The heat from the burning explosives within the machine scalded him, and the Chaos Emeralds in the bag on his back sang out loudly. Their voices rose to a crescendo, and they rang with the explosion within Sonic's ears. He cried out, subconsciously mimicking their song as he did so. A high pitched whine overtook both sounds, until Sonic collapsed and it all went silent.

When he finally came to, the night had fallen completely, stars scattered the sky as he lay on his back, staring up at them. The robot's remains were to one side of him; well, the feet were. The rest of the machine was scattered in a circular pattern around it, apart from a large gap where the scaffolding had been. It took Sonic a while for this to register. Had been? And wasn't he face down?

He sat up and looked around him. What had happened? He noted that he was still next to the wall. Pieces of shrapnel were still in his skin, and the arm that had been shielding his head was torn up. The scaffolding, it turned out, was in a heap of twisted metal behind him. He scowled at the remainder of the robot.

"Ghh... You packed a punch..." Sonic struggled to his feet, a hand on his head. "... What happened...?"

Remembering where he was, it came to him that he probably didn't have time to figure it out. Sonic put a hand onto the pile of metal and used it to help haul himself to his feet. One leg slid across the metal a little as he put his weight onto it, and he hissed as it twisted, then picked it up and put it down again, a bit slower this time. When it didn't give way, he lowered his hand, taking a moment to check the twisted wrist over, before turning his attention to the bloodied arm. He gingerly touched it, cringing even as he did so, looking over the remaining pieces of metal sticking out of it. He debated for a moment, trying to figure out whether he should pull them out or not, before deciding that it would probably be safer to leave them, for the time being.

He looked around, trying to decide where to go, when his mind was made up for him and he was forced to jump to avoid a flying ball covered in wicked looking spikes. He put his best foot forward as he landed, and propelled himself along the pathway, sliding underneath the spherical robot that had appeared as he had been pondering. Sonic yelled a brief insult at it for daring to defy gravity, vaguely hoping that the facts would stop it from just floating there, but not being surprised when it continued to.

The hedgehog rolled back to his feet, and looked at the robot. It seemed to be ignoring him, continuing on the path it had been going, which had happened to have had Sonic in the way at the time. The four spiked balls rotated around it, and he stared at it for a moment, debating whether or not to smash it and let the little animal bound to be inside out. After noting how quickly the balls spun around it, he decided better of it and turned away once more. He scanned the floor as he shuffled across it, and scooped up one of the scaffolding poles that had hit him earlier, using it as a staff to ease the weight on the still throbbing angle until it would stop protesting at him.

With his footsteps now accompanied by a metal clunk every other step, he took his progress through the Zone a little bit slower this time, taking the extra time to look about a little better. The bright green of the metal used in it had been darkened to a black-grey by the night sky, partially lit up orange by the lights atop the traffic cones that were dotted around the Zone. The silver-ish walkways reflected the sky, becoming solid paths of stars. Despite the place being a huge maze of paths and loops, and spiralling slides; in essence, a giant roller-coaster; Sonic found that he couldn't deny that it was certainly fascinating.

He looked back down to his injured arm, watching the stars reflect much less-so on the dull surfaces of the shrapnel. Well that was hardly fair, he couldn't help but think, especially when his arm was starting to itch like crazy. He flicked his left ear irritably, ignoring the pieces of metal still piercing that, and tucked his new pole under his arm to free up his hand for a moment. Grabbing the fingertips of his glove between his teeth, he pulled it off and examined the pointed nails, before using them to scratch between the shrapnel pieces, carefully avoiding knocking them. He made a mental note to get those seen to as soon as he wasn't in the midst of an unfinished Zone that was apparently abandoned.

Sonic frowned. Yes, it was indeed apparently abandoned. A project this big would have had people milling over it at night too, but there was no sign of anyone. Much like in the Spring Yard. Sonic took his staff back into his hand, and resumed his trek through the Zone, walking a little bit faster as his mind raced through what he'd started thinking about back in Spring Yard. Granted, if the Zone were full of people, he wouldn't have been able to cover so much of it already, but if the Zones were abandoned, there had to be a good reason. Sonic wasn't keen on ghost stories. Especially when they were forming themselves in his mind and twitching in the darkness beyond the reach of the traffic cone lights.

He gave a startled yell as a massive blast of wind burst against him, and fell off balance as he was pushed sideways by it. He landed with a heavy thud a distance away from the walls he'd been walking past, continuing to slide across the floor. Until the floor wasn't there any more. Another heavy thud and gasp later, he pulled himself back to his feet, dusting himself down as he looked for where his pipe had fallen. As he noticed it, the emeralds in the bag started singing, and he flicked the ear again. Sonic padded over towards the staff, looking around. There was a pattern, of sorts, that the Chaos Emeralds' singing had, and he was starting to recognise the one they sang when he was nearing another.

"Hmm...."

Sonic picked up his scaffold pole, and leaned on it, looking around. His ears twisted in all directions, hunting the matching song, before he started walking purposefully in the direction beyond where the pole had fallen. The new direction led him towards the edge of the pathway, where he could look out and see a sprawling city. This wasn't something he'd heard about in the local news or gossip. And he _still_ didn't approve of South Island getting huge building projects, but short of demolishing both Zones and the City, which he certainly wasn't up for at this current point in time, he couldn't think of any way to stop them. So, he resumed his hunt for the next Emerald instead.

Laying against a traffic cone was the shining stone. This one was an indescribable shade of blue, a similar colour to that of his quills. He sat down next to it, with his legs hanging over the side of the platform, and just watched it as he listened to them singing. Sonic sighed, humming quietly along with the song for a few moments, though it seemed longer to him. He absent mindedly trailed a finger across the stone, before finally picking it up, holding it up to the sky to look through its own glow.

"I wonder how many of these there are...." he said to himself, watching the twisting light within it.

Casting another glance down to the City, he watched a group of the wasp robots fly past in a v formation, and snarled at them. After he'd finished chasing that scientist down, he'd come back and wreck every single robot on the island, he decided. Giving a tired sigh, Sonic worked his way to his feet, wincing. He put the Emerald into the backpack, and leaned heavily on the pole, as he looked around, trying to regain his bearings. All the slipping and sliding and fans had thrown his sense of direction off, and now he couldn't tell which way was which. Except that the City was not the way he needed to go. So he turned around, and proceeded to walk back towards where he'd been blown down onto this ledge.

Looking around as he approached the scuffed metal where he had landed, he found a simple sloped plank of wood nearby, and frowned. Typical. Giving a small, tired sigh, he made his way back up it, and turned to survey his position again. It was still difficult to determine what direction he had been heading in, but at least now he wasn't stuck. He leaned on the scaffold pole again, frowning, before he caught the faint sound of whirring engines. His ears perked up, and, turning, he straightened to face towards the sound with a more confident stance. A small smirk crossed his face, and he started walking toward that distant noise. A soft thrumming vibrated through the metal under his feet, and a light breeze rushed over his fur. As the thrumming grew louder, Sonic glanced warily into the shadows, and started walking faster. His ankle throbbed in protest, but he ignored it, accelerating rapidly to rush past the large fan before it could push him back off the edge again. As he gained speed, the pain became a second concern to concentrating on where he was going, and so he rushed up towards his top speed again, lifting the pole so that it was levelled parallel to the ground.

Pretty soon, the thrill of the raw speed rushed through him, and he leaned forwards, eager for more, the injuries all but forgotten as the air boomed past him. This was easy, this was fun, and in the glee of the running he grew calmer, his thoughts trailed away from how lost he was towards wondering how fast he was going instead. The zone became a blur around him, and he lowered his head to lessen the impact the running was having on his face. Creaking metal and booming wind were only barely catching his attention, as he tore through the zone with an ecstatic laugh. There were a few robots foolhardy enough to pass by, but Sonic ignored them, letting the trailing slipstream deal with them instead. Ahead he could see further loops and see-saws, and another formation of buzzbombers at the top of a higher structure. Giving a wicked little grin, he lifted the pole onto his shoulder, and pushed himself to run faster.

He waited a few more seconds, then thrust the pole forwards of him, slamming it against a join in the platform. He sped on, leaving the staff behind and using the new arc of motion to throw himself through the air, sailing above a group of the floating ball robots. He curled up as he came back down, spinning as he landed on one end of the nearest see-saw, and rolled along to the other end as the spiked ball came down. The hedgehog was thrown back into the air, and he uncurled from his ball to get a view of where he was. Twisting in the air, he repeated the movements with the next see-saw, this time uncurling immediately after being launched.

With his arms tight against his aides and his head tilted up to maximise his natural streamlining, he shot up past the top of the tower, between the buzzbombers. They scattered as he landed on the back of one of them, sitting across it and grabbing its antennae for support. He scanned its back, before locating a panel in it, then relocating the panel to the floor below. The hedgehog darted a hand into the machine's innards, and promptly proceeded to rearrange the components within. The circling buzzbombers turned to aim their stinger bombs at him, so he jumped into the air again, pulling his robot's wings with him. As the vandalised buzzbomber exploded under the attacks of its companions, Sonic laughed and flipped over, throwing the wings at the others while he did so. Two more buzzbombers dropped from the sky, their flying mechanisms shattered by the large sheets of plastic slicing through their carapaces.

As he fell to the ground again, he bent his knees to propel himself upwards once more, the movement scattering the robots again. This time, however, they immediately aimed for him, firing the plasma balls in his direction. His jump kept him moving quick enough for them to pass underneath him, but it was close enough for him to realise that they weren't willing to play. So he spun into a ball, spiralling at the nearest one, and uncurled as he bounced off its surface again, taking the moment of being airborne to take note of the positions of the remaining machines. When he landed beyond them, he turned, and spun his feet into a blur below him. Waiting a moment for the robots to charge another energy blast, he took their hovering as the perfect opportunity to rush forwards, jumping to ricochet in a ball between them. His diamond quills ripped through them, destroying each with its own small explosion and the resounding clatter of pieces of metal. The little animals from the flight of robots gathered around Sonic as he landed, as if unsure what to think about him, before he nudged one with a toe and they scampered off.

Sonic rubbed his head as best as he could, compensating for the shrapnel again, before turning to face in the distance. From this structure, he could see the looming form of a gigantic factory, and so he nodded to himself, deciding that that was the way to go. He dashed to the edge of the tower, wide eyed and grinning as he looked down towards the remainder of the Star Light Zone, and the roller coaster ride it proposed. With an echoing whoop, he lunged forwards from the edge of the platform, leaning to an extent that gravity could pull him to face the ground. Before he could fall, his legs were moving again, and he started running down the side of the building. The combined force of gravity and his speed helped him to stick to the metal side of the structure, accelerating down it. As he neared the base, he jumped from it, flipping to run along the silver pathway. He rushed along it, following the steep grades and sharp curves with glee, skidding around the corners and sliding down the slopes, until he came to the end of the road, dropping abruptly off the edge of the platform.

As he uncurled from the ball he rolled into to lessen the impact, he ended up sitting in front of three see saws on a wide, flat expanse of metal that spread out ahead of him. Looking around, he figured that he was back on ground level, and he stood up, the energy from his running still coursing through his body. Looking past the field beyond the edge of the Zone; black against the star lit metal; he could see the lights illuminating the large power plant ahead, and coming from that factory was a large hovering blob that was rapidly becoming familiar to the hedgehog. Sonic's quills bristled, and he got back to his feet, waiting for the scientist to approach. The bright headlamp shone down on him as the hovercraft drew close, and Sonic threw a hand up to shield his eyes from the glare.

"Yo, Eggman! I was wondering if you'd turn up to meet me!"

"Ho ho my boy! What have you done to yourself?" the rotund human leaned forwards in the machine to get a better view of the tattered and torn hedgehog.

"_That_ was your stupid robot, not me!"

"Oh was it?" Robotnik laughed "I shall have to remember that design then! Now hand over the Chaos Emeralds."

Sonic snorted in disdain at him, and backed away a couple of steps, grinning. It was a silent gesture of defiance, as he fixed his glowing green gaze upon the underside of the machine. The device was shoddily put together, as if it had been crafted in a rush, with less effort having been put into it than the previous one, and the technologically minded hedgehog scoffed at it. It wouldn't take long to trash this one, just as he'd damaged the other. He started running, picking up speed at an incredible pace, and jumped into a spin aimed at the machine. Which moved out of the path of the whirling quills, leaving Sonic to bounce back onto the floor, uncurling and staggering forwards on the end of one of the see saws rather ungracefully. There was a cackle from above, and Sonic looked up, to see the bottom of the doctor's hovercraft. A small hatch opened in the bottom of it, and Sonic blinked, before yelping and jumping backwards off the teeter totter as a spiked ball crashed down on the end he'd been standing on. Looking at this ball, he thought back to the ones he'd used to help himself traverse the Zone, and an idea hovered in the back of his mind.

Flipping backwards along the length of another see saw, he stood on the end and waited for the hovercraft to float overhead. The hatch slid open once more, and as the ball fell from it, Sonic ran to the other end of the oversized playground toy, to repeat the springing method he'd used to get through Star Light. He drew level to Robotnik's machine, and spared a moment to wave as he passed, curling up to spin into the side of it on the way back down. The doctor's yell of irritation became a single expletive as the force of the hedgehog landing on the end of the teeter totter threw the spiked ball into the underside of the pod, denting the shell inwards. It seemed to remain fixed in place for a moment, before it dropped down once more, sending Sonic back into the air. This time, Sonic landed on top of the pilot's head, and laughed.

"So... how are those supposed to work?"

"Get off of my head you impertinent little brat!"

"Hey, you started it- whoa!" Sonic jumped, star-like, as the scientist swung a hand to attempt to know him off. As he landed back on top of the bald head again, he leaned forwards to look into Robotnik's face; albeit upside down. "You give up yet, or do I have to give you a headache?"

"You are already becoming a headache, boy. How about you hand over the Chaos Emeralds, and I'll do my best to explain what happened to your Zone?"

"Yeah, right, finders keepers, I got the shiny- wait, what?" Sonic stepped off of Robotnik's head, and perched on the console in front of him, sceptically raising an eyebrow. "You wouldn't explain before, why d'ya wanna explain now?"

"Because, child, I am getting tired of you following me across the entirety of the island just for an answer you'd have if you had paid attention in your history classes?" The end of Robotnik's sentence became a question, and Sonic frowned.

"You must think I'm really stupid."

Before Robotnik could respond, Sonic back flipped off of the craft, and planted a good kick into its headlamp to extinguish it on his way down. The lamps to either side of the wide walkway threw the middle area, between all the teeter totters, into pitch darkness, and within this dangerously dark playground Sonic hid.

"I don't just mean Genocide. And I'm not trading these... 'Chaos Emeralds' for any information about it. I just want to know one thing now, _Eggman_..."

Robotnik gripped the sides of his pod as it shook violently with the force of a super sonic hedgehog crashing into the base of it, accompanied with the sound of screeching metal as his unnaturally sharp spikes ripped through the hull.

"... I want to know _why_ you attacked _my _ Zone in the first place! Tell me why you did it!"

Another resounding wrench of torn metal, and Robotnik decided now was probably not the best time to get the Chaos Emeralds from the hedgehog. Sonic clearly had no idea how powerful the stones were, but he was not going to give them up without a fight...

And neither was he.

Robotnik peered over the side of the machine as Sonic dropped down from it again, vanishing back into the shadows below. The scientist looked around for him, but quickly stopped trying. He shook his head, the bushy moustache rustling as he did so, and he called down into that darkness.

"Stop attacking my egg-o-matic, Sonic, my boy. I do have a very good explanation for that. However, it is something you have to see. Which, even if I had it to hand right now, you could not see here, it's just too dark. So if you'd follow me to Scrap Brain, I have to documents within my office there."

"Documents? Office? Scrap Brain?" came the young hedgehog's voice from the darkness below.

"Yes. That power plant over there is the Scrap Brain. And if you would be so kind, please try not to mess it up when you come in?"

"What? Hey! Hey, wait! Come back here I'm not done talking to you yet!"

The scientist chuckled to himself as he piloted the crippled machine towards the factory Zone, and as Sonic charged after him. The hedgehog would not be able to get in the same way that he could, which would give him plenty of time to set up a surprise for him when he got there.

Sonic kept yelling at Robotnik to come back, but the scientist's machine had clearly not suffered enough damage to slow it down significantly; instead, all the exertion against it had caught up in the time he'd been talking to Robotnik, and the hedgehog found himself unable to manage much more than a brisk jog towards the looming Zone ahead. As he ran, he growled at himself.

"Why, Sonic? Why didn't you make him talk right then?! Idiot!"

He hissed at the pain in his limbs, but kept pushing onwards. He'd catch him and this time, he promised himself. He would not let him run.

-TBC-

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_Author's Note:_ Sorry about the epic delay between this and the previous part! Other projects and work and stuff tend to get in the way. If it seems a bit disjointed, that'd be because of that gap too, and my sincerest apologies if it doesn't follow on quite so well. If you see any gaping plotholes in the way it follows on from the previous chapters, feel free to point them out to me, so I can fix them as quickly as possible ^_^;

Finally, if I had been following your fics and stopped replying, I'm sorry about that. Real life comes first I'm afraid :/ I'll try catch up with them when I have the chance to.


	11. The Scrap Brain Zone

**Blue Star **

_Author's Note:_ Okay, so it's been a while since I've updated this story, again. If you're still reading, thank you for bearing with me on it, I've been having some difficulty in that mystical place known as Real Life, which takes precedence over fan-fiction. Anyway, onto the story related stuff.

I've done a lot of alterations to the Scrap Brain Zone, which you'll read about in due course, and the fan-fiction as a whole will only be covering Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 now. Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles will be covered in a later fic, which will be touched upon nearer the time.

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Part 11: The Scrap Brain Zone

Sonic's feet dragged as he walked across the field, the cold night air chilling his fur and making him shiver. He was starting to feel the exhaustion from his cross-island trek build up, and his increasing tally of injuries was doing nothing to help ease it. He walked on, defying his mind as it told him to sleep already, and groaned at the dull pain as it returned to his limbs. The stars above had gradually vanished behind a cloud layer, and the closer Sonic got to the Scrap Brain, the more he found himself wanting to go back.

He scolded himself, and looked down, a hand clasped tightly around the strap of his bag, and concentrated on where his feet were stepping in the dark. The grass was growing sparse, turning to bare patches of hard dirt, and the occasional tuft caught him out, tripping him a little and jarring his tired body. Sonic sighed miserably after each little stumble, slogging onward until he reached a towering fence that marked the outer perimeter of the factory zone. The cross wire barrier drew a little pout from the hedgehog, as he stopped to look around to find the gate.

"Why couldn't he have told me the way in too?"

He sighed as he found a sign pointing the direction to the 'main entrance', and started walking along the fence in the direction that was indicated. Security cameras followed his movement, as he was observed by the scientist from wherever he was inside the power plant, so the hedgehog grinned at them, slightly cautiously, as he walked along, continuing to grasp the strap of his bag tightly. The fence was lit up occasionally with lamps that were positioned at regular intervals, so he wasn't walking in complete darkness, but the shadows were made deeper by the amber lighting, turning the simple act of setting out from them into an unnerving prospect. Sonic focused on the signs again, continuing to follow them, until the gate slowly came into view a few lights away. He sped up a little, ignoring the protesting from his limbs, and soon drew level with it. As he turned, his feet stepping onto concrete, his face dropped.

"Robotnik! Open this flipping gate!"

Sonic glared at the cameras stop the fence either side of the gate, folding his arms and tapping a foot impatiently. He didn't want to get held up. The more he waited the more he was getting wary of the scientist's invitation. He was about to turn and head back, as Robotnik's voice crackled out of the air nearby, making the hedgehog jump, quills bristling.

"Oh, my mistake. I must have opened a different gate. One moment, my boy."

"Still not your boy, Eggman!" Sonic shouted at the speaker as he spotted it, quills still on end.

"Yes yes, we'll discuss that later." the scientist sounded slightly bored as the gate swing open, crashing into its stops with a clang. "Come in, Sonic, my office is clearly marked on the walls inside the first building. This is really a privilege, you know, only myself and my staff are normally allowed in here."

"Oh shut up. I'm only here so you'll tell me what happened. Properly. And you better not set any more robots on me or I will not talk nicely!"

"Manners, Sonic."

There was a moment of static, and the speakers dropped silent again. Sonic frowned at the open gate cautiously, waiting a moment to see if any robots would attack, before stepping slowly inside. The gate crashed shut behind him, and he whirled around, quills on end. The want to turn away from the power plant zone just grew stronger, and it took him some effort to turn back to face it.

The buildings towered over him, yet it seemed so small in relation to the island it was supposed to be providing the power for. Maybe there were other plants elsewhere on South Island? He walked, slowly, towards the doorway; a great rolling shutter that opened as he approached it. The interior was dark, until he got close enough, when the lights lit up what was clearly a goods entrance of sorts. He loitered outside for a moment, then leaned against the exterior wall, shifting the rucksack from his shoulders to fish the computer from it. The device didn't have much information on the Scrap Brain however, aside from saying it continued underground, and provided the energy for the Green Hill, Spring Yard, and the Star Light zones. Well, that explained why it seemed so small, he guessed, putting the computer back into the bag amongst the singing Chaos Emeralds once again.

He tugged the backpack onto his shoulders, and pushed off from the wall, cringing at the slight protest from his injured leg. Sonic waited a moment for it to stop throbbing, before starting to walk into the entrance. A short distance in, the shutter rolled down behind him, and the young hedgehog felt all his quills stick up on end. This building smelt too metallic. He flicked his ears fully upright as he continued walking across the cargo dock to a large door on the opposing wall to the entrance. A great window alongside, covered in a protective wire, allowed him a view inside the factory zone as he got to the door.

His jaw dropped at the sights inside the single room he could see.

Great conveyor belts and electrical orbs were scattered at varying levels above the floor, and pistons pounded down onto the belts at regular intervals, some of them leaving heaps of metal in their place, whilst others pounded it flat. These conveyors moved through a door that opened and shut between each pile of scrap, and Sonic couldn't see through them easily. But one thing he could tell, was that the bit he could see didn't look much like a power plant to him. He snorted a small cloud of condensation at the window, before looking across at the door warily. If Robotnik ran this place, then no doubt he'd have robots around, and the little hedgehog didn't trust him to keep his word about not attacking him. But the hedgehog stepped sideways to the door, twitching his ears at all angles to listen carefully as he frowned at the keypad lock.

"Oh come on! You said you'd let me in, Robotnik!" Sonic glared at the keypad, and the flashing led next to the locked icon, waiting for it to change.

Before getting bored after a minute and flexing his fingers. There came a rapid succession of error beeps as his hands blurred with the speed of the button bashing, until the led switched from red to green, and there was the sound of the door lock disengaging. One triumphant grin later, the door swung open inwards, and Sonic stepped inside, looking around cautiously, albeit keeping a smug smirk on his face. He scanned the room for doors that would lead further into the factory, or signs to Robotnik's office, or, at the very least, a clue as to what this room was for, as he wandered around it, between the conveyors and electrical coils.

Sonic finally spotted a sign on one of the walls, past a conveyor, and made his way carefully between the machinery over to it. It looked like a hastily written; by hand, not typed, which drew suspicion from the hedgehog; list of workplace targets. He folded his arms as he scanned through the shorthand list, but quickly got distracted by a whirr from behind him. Sonic spun on the spot, braced to be attacked by another of the scientist's robots, but relaxed when he noticed the whirr was merely caused by a loose piece of scrap that had fallen from the conveyors and into a gear below, jamming the belt. He had no intention of fixing it, so he turned back to the sign. Below the hand written note was a proper directory sign, pointing towards the only other door in the room.

Sonic scanned the list, muttering to himself as he read out the locations, "generators, energy room, cafeteria, blah blah blah you are at the factory floor blah blah... ahah, office of Doctor Ivo Robotnik... Two floors down? Cool, not too bad... 'Ivo?' What the heck kind of a name is 'Ivo'?"

The young hedgehog shrugged and walked towards the door indicated on the sign, giving the jammed conveyor a cursory kick as he walked past the stuck gears, which knocked the piece of scrap loose and sent the conveyor belt snapping back into place with a loud crack. Sonic hissed at it, flattening his ears from the noise for a moment, then pushed the door open and stepped through. The door led into a corridor, not wherever the conveyors led to, which the hedgehog was kind of disappointed about, but he followed the one route along casually, looking out for more directories now that he knew what they looked like; a hideous grey sign with red and black, rigid fonts over it. Sonic sighed and kicked a wayward chunk of metal along the corridor ahead of him, watching it roll down the slanted path for a short way each time. He was heading below ground level now, it seemed.

The piece of scrap rolled down towards a door at the other end of the corridor, which was, inevitably, shut. There was another directory next to it, recounting the information that Sonic had already read on the previous one, only this one had a map of the next room. The next corridor looked like it was more of a hub, a large, circular room with doors leading off to different parts of the factory floor, all indicated with small notes next to them, and some elevators to the floors below. Sonic made a note of the position of the elevator in relation to the corridor he was standing in, then turned to the door. There was another keypad lock, but, with the same rapid fire button bashing technique he'd used before, that was quickly surpassed. This door was electrical, and slid open with a whoosh noise as the code broke. Sonic went to step through it, but stopped as his ears flicked forwards, picking up a buzzing noise. He lowered his foot again, and frowned at the door frame. There was a strip of metal lining the frame, and as he stepped sideways to inspect it closer, he could hear the buzzing coming directly from it. Sonic picked up the lump of metal, and stood backwards, throwing the scrap in the air and catching it twice, before tossing it through the frame.

The blinding flash as the scrap passed through the electrical barrier told Sonic that he was indeed not welcome.

"... Nice try, Eggman... You can bet that once I'm done with you here the police are gonna hear about you trying to fry me too..."

Sonic looked around the frame again as he muttered, ears flicking as he searched for any sign of a weak point in it that he could exploit. Confident that Robotnik wasn't listening to him now, he muttered various insults as he ran gloved fingers along the plastic-like walls instead, judging the inside of them by how much electricity he could hear. If he could find the right spot, he could probably break through the wall and bypass the door altogether. As he moved his hand over the wall, one spot at his waist height made his fur bristle and his spikes stand on end. He traced it along the wall, to figure that it was about half a foot tall and ran parallel to the floor from the door frame to the wall. Memorising its location, he moved to the wall on the other side to try there. That wall didn't seem to have any at first, until he brought his hand down towards ground level, and found a similar strip running along the lowest part of the wall. Stepping back again, he pouted, trying to decide the best method for getting through. Until another thought hit him.

He turned to his right, facing the direction he'd started facing when he'd first stepped into the corridor, and examined the wall carefully. There wasn't room for a run up, so he walked back up the slanting corridor, turned, and looked down towards the electrical door. This was going to be risky, but Sonic was determined to get through. He backed up as far as he could, then started running on the spot, much like in the Starlight Zone. Only this time, he used the wall to launch himself forward once he judged that he would have enough speed, and charged down the slope, angling himself towards the wall on the right as he accelerated towards that door. In a split second, he pulled his bag from his back and curled into a ball, spinning in a whirl of razor sharp quills that shredded through the tough material of the wall.

At least, until he hit something harder. The increased resistance slowed his spinning, and he ended up dropping to the floor in a shower of sparks. Uncurling on his back, still in the corridor he'd started in, he panted, cringing at the protesting from his pained limbs as it screamed louder at him. Sonic let go of the bag, letting it balance on his chest, as he puffed to regain his breath. Once he'd got it back, after a few minutes, he sat up and looked accusingly at the resilient wall to see what had happened. The softer wall had a layer of metal through it, not charged with electricity like the bright strip in the door frame, but a darker, almost black grey, with a tinge of blue through it. It was no metal he'd seen before, and it didn't have more than a scratch on it from the spinning blade-quills of a speeding cobalt hedgehog.

"... What the hell is this stuff?" Sonic rapped it hard with his knuckles, and was rewarded with a sore hand. Clasping it with his other hand, he hissed an insult at the wall. "Ngh, right. Plan b."

Sonic rubbed his hand as he walked back up the top of the corridor, with his bag hooked over his arm again, and looked at the electrical door again. This time he was going to go through that wall, since a short cut wasn't the smartest option with a strong alloy in the other wall. He flexed his fingers to ensure they worked, before starting to run on the spot once more. Aiming directly at the barrier, he repeated the forward charge, but as the slope started, he jumped into the air, curling into a speeding ball again, and hoping that he had the angle right, or he'd end up as one crispy hedgehog.

One dust flying, spikes squealing, shrapnel splitting spin later, and Sonic found himself face down on the floor in the next room. The young hedgehog pushed himself up to his feet shakily and looked around. He'd managed to force his way through the wall above the door. Looking up to it he noted another, thin layer of that strange metal, which had bent before snapping under his attack. There wasn't much of it broken on the floor around him, and judging by the curve of the hole, he'd pushed through rather than broken through it. Sonic turned his attention back to the floor, and picked up his bag and a piece of the metal shrapnel from amongst the plaster pieces and dust. As he swung the bag back onto his back, he put the shard into it, and looked towards the door. Spying a control panel for the electricity on this side, he scooped up another piece of shrapnel and walked over to it. The hedgehog flicked the shard in the air, before catching it and stabbing the control box swiftly with it. The makeshift dagger ripped through the plastic of the box, and a lowering pitch faded out of existence as the electrical field shut down.

Sonic stepped through the now safe frame, then back again, satisfied that he wasn't going to be barbecued by a door now. He started walking towards the elevator, and tossed the shard at the control box. Leaving the metal quivering in the smoking controls, he stepped into the elevator and glared up at the camera in it as the doors shut behind him.

"No funny business, 'doctor', I've had enough of these games, you're going to talk to me and you're going to stop trying to get rid of me." Sonic bared his teeth at the camera, and jumped as a response crackled from it.

"My boy, I am doing nothing of the sort, there are some complex security features about the place, and I can hardly be expected to remember them all."

"The door was still electrified!"

"And that is one I forgot to shut down. Now please refrain from destroying anything on the following floors, there's a lot of very expensive, very important equipment down here."

Sonic tugged a loose quill free from his spikes, and examined the sharp bladed edge casually, pretending to ignore the camera as Robotnik rattled on about his various security equipment. The little hedgehog pressed the button to set the elevator going to the next floor, and walked back to lean against the corner of it, below the camera. In his office, Robotnik would only be able to see Sonic's red and white sneakers, and that suited him just fine. The scientist requested that Sonic stand where he could see him, and was ignored.

"Sonic, my boy, I see you still have your rucksack with you. If you would like, you may leave it there and it will be there when you return."

"Nuh-uh Eggman, d'ya think I'm stupid?" As Sonic grumbled his irritated reply, he scored a line in the side of the elevator with the quill in his hand. "After you dumped me off a bridge, into an underwater maze, and tried to crush me with see-saws and balls, I am not letting these out of my sight."

There was a long pause for a moment as Robotnik contemplated an answer, which Sonic took the opportunity to cut more lines in the wall, until a thin layer of it came away. He caught it as it fell free, so that it couldn't be seen by the camera or heard if it hit the floor. When Robotnik spoke again, he managed to maintain his calm façade.

"Mister Spiritpaw, you have absolutely no idea how dangerous those stones are. If you do not relinquish your hold on them, you may get very hurt."

"By these? I don't think so. By you more likely, I bet." the hedgehog scored another line along the piece of metal he held, and bent it into a longer, thinner strip. "But you wanted to talk in your office, so let's leave the talk until then, m'kay?"

"Sonic."

"Yesssssss, Eggmaaaaan?" Sonic stretched the words back at him, to maximise the irritation he was causing.

"Do not toy with me, boy, you are in no condition to."

"Blah blah, I'll be seeing you in a few minutes, Doctor."

Sonic reached up with the strip of metal, and cut the cables leading to the camera. The lights on it shut off, but the speakers, which apparently weren't connected to it, belted out a repeat of the scientist's 'don't break anything' command. Sonic ignored it, and tapped his foot impatiently as the elevator slowed to a stop. There was no floor indicator, and he was half expecting to come out into some sort of trap, but as the doors slid open and he stepped out, the signs on the neatly plastered corridors were similar to the ones on the ground floor, only this time the map on the wall showed he was on floor B2. This corridor was the smallest one yet, not much bigger than the elevator he'd just left. There was only one door, emblazoned with signs that said 'no unauthorized access' and 'restricted area'.

So Sonic pounded the security locks until they opened the door and he could step through. And what he saw on the other side made his jaw drop.

The room was enormous, and littered with sloped walls and giant conveyor belts. As the hedgehog walked forward, the pathway segments beneath his feet spun round rapidly, throwing him below them as he lost his footing. He hit a slanted floor below with a soft thump, and rolled down it to land on another belt at the bottom. Sonic stood up, rubbing his behind, and stared along the conveyor to see where it was taking him. The belt led through a smallish doorway, and as he passed through it, he tightened his grip on the strap of his backpack, staring at the walls that towered above and below him. They were covered in pounding pistons and spinning saws, each set above several conveyors with piles of metal rolling along them. Purple lights showed where the edges of the various machines, as well as where the edges of the conveyor that he was standing on, were.

As for where the moving walkway was taking him, well... Sonic looked ahead, and started back-pedalling to keep himself from being pulled underneath the pistons slamming down on the conveyor in front of him. His injured leg protested at the sudden change in direction, and he slipped back onto his rear as it gave way beneath him. He glanced over the edge of the belt, but was unable to see anything. He looked back at the rapidly approaching piece of pounding metal, and sighed.

"Oh what the hell." He rolled to the side, to drop off the belt. "Please be a floor down here!"

His request was quickly responded to, as he landed haphazardly on a flat, and thankfully not moving, floor with a thump. Wincing, he scrambled back to his feet and looked around, before starting to walk in the direction that the conveyor had been leading. It made sense to him, considering it was the only clue for a direction that he had. And besides, he couldn't get back the way he'd come any more. So he grabbed the strap of his bag with one hand, anxious not to lose his hard earned Emeralds in this strange place, while he walked. Looking over the walls as he walked into a low roofed, wide corridor, he jumped as a piston slammed into the floor where he'd been standing moments before. His eyes widened as he whirled around to stare at it, then trailed his gaze up over the arms of it to where they disappeared into the roof of the corridor. The piston raised back up slowly, slotting into a perfectly shaped slot for it, and didn't move again. Sonic bristled at it, and carefully put a foot out below it; only to pull it back rapidly as the large slab of metal slammed down again.

"Okay then... add those to the list to things to avoid, Sonic..."

The hedgehog turned away from it, and started to walk again, pressing forwards, only this time watching the roof and floor for signs of the oversized pistons. Thankfully, as he walked, he couldn't see any more of the pistons, not to mention that the floor changed to a grating further ahead. Curious to see what the mechanics of the factory Zone were like below his feet, he darted forwards, stopping on top of the grating to look downwards. Below it was hard to see, but the smell of rust and scoured metal wafted up through it, and the sounds of the machinery both below and around him mixed together. Sonic's affinity for mechanics encouraged him to stay there for a moment longer, before he decided to continue moving along. His sneakers hit the floor with a repetitive thunk thunk thunk, and his ears were straining to keep a wary listen for dangerous sounds through the cacophony around him. His fingers tightened around the bag straps, and he sped up his pace a little, turning his head more often to keep looking around.

Until a big, pink, pig shaped robot appeared ahead of him. Sonic slowed to a stop, there wasn't enough room to jump at the robot this time, so he waited to see what it would do. A large black orb rolled from its chest, and it caught it in its trotters. Sonic's ears flicked forwards, and he crouched slightly, ready to move at the first necessity. The pig robot threw the ball directly at him, so he stepped aside, only to be taken by surprise when the ball exploded atop the grating by his foot. He yelped and slid further away, to be forced back again as another ball exploded by his head, denting the roof of the corridor. The hedgehog stepped on the patch where the first bomb had hit, and the grating creaked unnervingly for a moment, giving him enough time to cast a startled glare towards the ball-hog, before it shattered under his weight and he dropped down through it, passing rapidly flashing lights and whirring pistons.

And landed in something extremely cold and extremely wet, knocking his breath away from him.

Sonic splashed to the surface in a hurry, and gasped for air only a split second after breaking it. He scrambled towards the walls, gripping hold of crumbling stonework to let him catch his breath. After giving himself a moment to recover, he looked around. And his ears dropped back in horror.

"Not here again!"

But as many times as Sonic closed and opened his eyes, he remained floating in an underground lake in what appeared to be the Labyrinth Zone. Only this part didn't look so healthy, the walls were devoid of green plant-life, and no giant insects flew around. The moss on the masonry was a sickly grey-purple in colour, and the water was an unhealthy purple tinted colour; not to mention a lot more difficult to stay afloat in. Sonic splashed a bit for good measure, before taking a large breath and diving down into the water. There was a strong current pulling him along, it seemed to be part of the large network of underground rivers that ran beneath the island; Sonic reckoned that this must be where Robotnik sourced the power for the Zones above him. The water in this part of the Labyrinth was tainted with something less than pleasant, and it stung his eyes and felt like it was seeping into his skin, and he decided that it would definitely be a good idea to get out of this Zone as fast as possible.

Sonic swam with the current, letting it lead him through the underwater passages, before he broke away from it to kick his way to the surface for some more air. There was a pathway alongside the river here, so the hedgehog; who wasn't going to turn down the easier option; climbed up onto it. He shook most of the putrid water from his body, then slid the bag from his shoulders to shake the water from that too. After a cursory check that the five Emeralds; grey, yellow, green, red, and blue; were still within it, and the hand held computer, he did the bag up securely and pulled it back onto his back. His feet tapped impatiently as he looked around, taking in the cables and floats suspended at the edges of the river, and the way they led over the walls between the bricks. Sonic snorted, unable to see the generator and reckoning that it had been built into the stonework below the water line, before he started to walk downstream, looking for a way back up. If there were mechanics down here, there had to be a way out too. Slowly increasing his pace, to reduce the sudden pressure on his injuries, he jogged along the slippery corridor, keeping a watchful eye on the crumbling edges of the pathway and a wary one on the river next to it. The pathway seemed calm enough though, which figured, if it was part of the Labyrinth Zone it was a natural death trap so Robotnik wouldn't have needed to put robots down there. But he didn't reckon upon some other defences.

The hedgehog sat up and rubbed his chest, gasping for breath through shocks of pain. He cracked an eye open and hissed at the large iron mace that hung from the ceiling, swinging in a perpetual loop through a specially crafted channel in the stone. It had swung down just as he was passing beneath it, having not noticed it there at his jog, and crunched into his front, sending him flying backwards to slide along the floor on his rear and end up laying across the bag of sharp pointed stones and with a few nasty gouges in his skin. Luckily for him, he'd managed a step back just before he got caught, which had lessened the damage, and he was small enough to fit between most of the wickedly pointed spikes that adorned the ball, so most of the major damage had been done by the sheer weight of the sphere crashing into him. Sonic was safely out of its range now, but man that had hurt! He watched it swing as he rubbed his chest, slowly and cautiously catching his breath.

"Agh... Sonic... how did you not see that?"

Once the pain in his lungs had started to subside, Sonic carefully started to work his way back to his feet, wincing at the renewed burning through his beaten and battered body. He wobbled uncertainly as he tried to regain his balance on the slippery surface, but managed to stay upright, shifting his feet to support him with minimal cost to his legs. Waiting a moment with his arms slightly raised to keep the balance, he gave a small sigh of relief at not falling straight back down. It didn't stop him wishing he still had his pipe though. Turning his attention back to the mace, he watched it spin, looking at where it cleared the floor, and judging how much room either side of it on the walkway there was. Especially as he didn't particularly wish to try going back into that less than savoury river. A minute watching the ball let him see that it swung directly down the middle of the narrow path, leaving little room to manoeuvre on either side. He wouldn't be able to fit through the gap between it and the wall, but he didn't particularly want to risk walking around so near to that river. So underneath the ball it was.

Sonic sighed wearily and turned around, walking back a short distance, before facing the swinging sphere again to time the spins. He needed to get this right first time, that blow hadn't been the softest ever, and he doubted that running straight into another one would be any easier on his body at all. Counting how long it stayed in the ceiling channel, he backed up another few steps, pulled the bag straps tight, and sprinted towards the ball as it started to swing back up into the groove. It started to swing down as he was passing below it, looking a lot faster than it had before he started running at it, so Sonic let his feet slip out forwards of him, and dropped below the rapidly spinning ball to slide past it on the slippery floor. The friction from his quills dragging on the ground helped him slow, but he still had to grab hold of a nearby gargoyle before he was thrown back into the river by the momentum. Once he stopped, he sat up again, and puffed a sigh of relief.

"Well. That wasn't so bad. Another point for me. Maybe I should go into football, with a sliding tackle like that." Sonic was too weary to make much of his own joke, giving a half hearted chuckle as he pulled himself back to his feet with the aid of the gargoyle. "At least I know to look out for those now..."

He started to take a step, but his ears twitched round, back towards the gargoyle. So intent he'd been on avoiding that mace and the water, that he hadn't noticed it, but there was a singing from inside the crumbling statue. Sonic put his foot down and crouched down to peer inside the knee high idol's mouth, and sure enough, in there was a glowing purple Chaos Emerald. The hedgehog gave a tired smile at it, and reached into the statue's mouth to grab it. But when he started to pull the shining stone out, his hand got jammed against the back of the gargoyle's teeth in a manner much like a monkey trap. Sonic tugged it again, and growled at the jaws, before placing his other hand on its nose and bracing his feet against its base. Using this added support, he pulled hard against the jewel; with its brothers singing out to it in his bag; trying to pull it between the jaws of the statue's mouth. The ancient stone started to crack, before it broke suddenly without warning, sending Sonic skidding back onto the floor on his rear again, only this time he held the Emerald in his hand. He made short work of sitting up to look at it this time, admiring the way it reflected the water to add to its own violet shine, but a tickling on his arm distracted him. A quick scratch from his other hand solved it for a moment, but it moved elsewhere. And looking to see it, he shrieked and leapt back to his feet, flailing his arm wildly to throw the rather large, black, hairy spider off of it. The hapless creature skittered off into the shadows at the edge of the walkway, while Sonic brushed all trace of the spider off his arm. The creatures made his skin crawl, with their multitude of limbs and great big jaws. He wasn't scared of them if he knew where they were, but when they snuck up on him like that...

Sonic stuck his tongue out in disgust as he slid the bag from his shoulders and put the purple Emerald into it. The six gemstones shone brightly as they sang together, and Sonic watched the light within them dance along to the music. He wondered if anyone else had heard them before as he pulled the bag back on. And for that reason, why no one had seen the grey one in the Green Hill Zone either. They weren't really subtle. But he shrugged the bag into position between his back spikes, deciding that it was their loss, as he looked back along the path. There were several routes further along, most of which headed downwards, though one continued straight on, but was fenced off. The simple wire fence and padlock barring access to this route were a relief after everything else Sonic had encountered in the Zone already, and, threading a hand through a hole in the mesh, he picked the lock easily with a quill.

Following the pathway, and noting how this tunnel was lit by artificial lights and there were increasing numbers of cables following it from deep within the Zone, he decided that it looked more the right way than the rest of the tunnels did. Sonic took the path cautiously, watching out for more rivers or swinging spike balls or psychotic pig robots, but didn't run into any more as the path started to head upwards. The floor grew drier as it went away from the subterranean rivers, and the wall carvings became hard to see past the sheer amount of converging cables. Ahead, a steel door lay ajar, with a strip of that strange, blueish metal that had stopped him when he entered the zone running across it diagonally. He slowed as he approached it, watching the gap in it cautiously. The cables veered through a hole in the roof, leaving nothing for him to follow, so he edged up to the toughened door, surveying the alloy edging to it and the reinforced frame and hinges, and frowned suspiciously. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to pass this door. Though then again maybe it was strengthened against potential surges in the rivers below. Sonic stood, flipping a mental coin for a moment, until he heard a chuckling from the other side of the door. His ears flattened at the growing familiar sound of Doctor Robotnik's laugh, before he hissed and bolted through the door.

"Robotnik you are a madman!" he shrieked as he faced the scientist in the neat, sparsely furnished office.

"Ah! Sonic my boy, so good of you to join me!" Robotnik sat behind a desk in the centre of the large room, and motioned towards a chair in front of it. "Take a seat!"

"I'll stand, thanks." Sonic still took a glance towards that chair, it was looking quite tempting, even if it was probably a trap. "Time to explain, Eggman."

Robotnik's bushy ginger moustache twitched slightly, hinting at an irritation at the child giving him orders. But he nodded, and reached down behind the desk towards a drawer. The weary hedgehog was slightly crouched through a combination of exhaustion and caution, and the scientist mused as to how he'd managed to cross an island full of traps and his robots in just a couple of days. Robotnik wouldn't admit it out loud, but he was impressed. Sonic was watching every motion he was making, and those wild green eyes were quite unnerving, they gave the hedgehog a look of danger and would, for any lesser man, probably stop them from trying to cross him. But the doctor wasn't going to be outdone by an abnormality. He pulled his hand out of the drawer, and Sonic's ears and spikes pricked up as he saw the papers in the scientist's hand. Robotnik laid them neatly on the table and slid them forwards, before swinging a hand above them, inviting the hedgehog to read them. For making it this far, Sonic at least deserved to know what the deal as far as Robotnik was concerned was. The human laughed as the boy didn't move.

"Ho ho ho hoo, come here my boy, I'll explain quite happily for you."

"I don't trust you."

"Really now, I'm hardly going to hurt you am I?"

"You DROPPED me down a HOLE into the LABYRINTH ZONE. You've tried to SET ME ON FIRE. You've tried to CRUSH me and STAB me, set robots on me, and your stupid factory is a DEATH TRAP! I think that ALLOWS for some caution, don't you?" Sonic bristled, very clearly not in the mood to tolerate any more of the cheerful attitude Robotnik was displaying.

"All accidents, I assure you."

"Funny. Now stop lying to me and tell me what the hell you did to my Zone!"

"As I keep trying to tell you, if you would just listen, I had no part in its destruction. That was purely Genocide City."

"Yeah? And what was with the robot army then? Which you STILL stole the designs from me for."

Robotnik sighed with irritation. Sonic was a lot smarter than he had reckoned upon, but, being the self proclaimed genius that he was, he had prepared for this. "My boy, you're still in denial. You saw a terrible thing happen to your Zone, and are looking for an outlet for the blame. I meant absolutely no harm, I was bringing my robots to promote a new business venture of mine, for security purposes."

"Yeah, and if that's true what's your security doing trying to kill me?"

"You're an intruder in my Zones."

"Your Zones?" Sonic was visibly shaking now, and all his stance had changed to a much more aggressive one. Robotnik's hand hovered under his desk as he kept a close eye on the hedgehog. "Your Zones? You can't own a Zone! You attacked my Zone, no matter what you say, and the rest of the east side is not yours either!"

"Really? Come here and look at these documents."

"No."

"Do you want proof or not? I'm a busy man after all, and I don't have all day."

Sonic glared sceptically at Robotnik, who peered back at him through his tinted glasses. The pieces of paper on the desk looked complicated, and Sonic wasn't sure if he should read them. If Robotnik's paperwork proved him wrong he'd look silly, and he wasn't willing to back down on his own side. Besides, he wanted to get back at the scientist for everything that had happened in the Green Hill Zone. When it didn't look like Sonic was going to come to the desk, Robotnik gave an annoyed 'hmph' and pressed a button on the intercom on the desk. Sonic's ears perked up to listen as he spoke into it. When Robotnik released the intercom, he put his hands together on top of his desk and watched the hedgehog's reaction as one of the doors Sonic hadn't entered from opened and a tall grey rabbit strolled in, followed by a slightly shorter pig in a shirt and tie. The pig carried a clipboard and looked worried, while the rabbit was carrying a small crate and simply looked fed up with it. Sonic was staring at the newcomers, as if he hadn't expected to see any other animals in the factory. As they noticed him, the pig's face dropped and the rabbit's eyebrow rose.

"Hey, do I know you?" the rabbit asked, placing the crate on Robotnik's desk.

"Um..." Sonic's ears flattened nervously.

"Jonathan, Porker, this is Sonic. He's a visitor, and new to this end of the island, could you reassure the boy that I mean no harm, please?" Robotnik waved a hand towards Sonic, who hissed at him and bristled.

"Sonic? Is that even a real name?"

"Who asked for your approval huh?" Sonic turned his glare on Johnny instead, and Robotnik took the chance to tap the crate's lock and make sure it was secure. "My mother gave me this name so back off!"

"Hey, I didn't mean anything by that, sorry." The rabbit flicked his ears forwards as he watched Sonic choke back a sob. "Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine! Leave me alone!"

"Johnny? L-look at him, he really n-needs to get to a doctor... Or something..." Porker was hiding behind his clipboard, looking at Sonic's injuries with horror. "H-how long have you been w-walking around like that?"

Sonic bristled again, looking over himself in the bright light of the office, and realising that he looked like he'd just crawled out of a grave. He glared at Robotnik, who appeared to be ignoring the little conversation. "Since this guy destroyed the Green Hill Village. If you must know."

"Doctor Robotnik? Naa, you're mistaken, he wouldn't have done that." Johnny folded his arms, looking thoughtful none the less. Porker, however, looked less certain.

"The Green Hill Village was d-d-destroyed? How?"

"Eggman there came along with a robot army and set it on fire!" Sonic was not showing any sign of calming down, in fact he looked more irritated than before. "And he called Genocide City on it somehow!"

"Sonic, Genocide goes where it wants. You can't call it." Johnny sighed. "And besides, the Green Hill Zone is where it used to be, so it was bound to come back one day..."

"But my family was there! I- I- I..." Sonic looked away from them all, turning his back on the topic, trying to ignore it. His bristling stopped and he slouched slightly instead.

Johnny looked at Porker, who looked at Robotnik. The scientist waved a hand dismissively, indicating that this was how Sonic had been acting the whole time. Sonic dropped to sit on the floor, with his hands over the top of his head. He couldn't outright attack Robotnik while there were other people around, and Robotnik wasn't going to attack him in the same situation either. This left Sonic to think about what had happened at Green Hill properly for the first time. The robot troops charging at the village, the memory of the tangible fog and the smell of death, and the screams of people he knew...

Johnny and Porker flinched as the little hedgehog belted out a scream at the top of his lungs, and even Robotnik peered over the top of his glasses at him.

"Oh dear..." Porker hid behind the clipboard again, stepping backwards.

"Sonic? Are you alright?" Johnny rushed over to him and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, ears flattened back, "It'll be okay..."

Robotnik got to his feet and gathered up his papers from the desk, before starting to walk around in front of it at the questioning look from Porker. "This young lad was the only survivor of that event, and promptly started to accuse me even though I had only arrived after it."

"Why... W-why didn't you bring him with you?"

"Well I had called the Emerald Hill Zone for assistance, but Sonic had vanished before they could find him. I didn't realise that he had been following me."

"LIAR!" Sonic jumped to his feet without warning and charged at the exposed scientist, leaping into the air and planting his feet in his chest, knocking Robotnik to the floor. Sonic stood on top of the downed human, baring his teeth and raising his fists. "You're a LIAR! The whole wa- hey! Let me go! Put me down right now! I have a bone to pick with this evil jerk!"

Johnny kept a tight grip around the waist of the struggling hedgehog, while Robotnik out a hand on his desk and used it to get back to his feet. The rabbit yelped as he was rewarded with a powerful kick for his efforts, but managed to hiss a calm response, "Please calm down, I'm sure this is all a misunderstanding, right?"

"Misunderstanding my tail! He's been trying to kill me the entire way here!" Sonic writhed, trying to get free, but Johnny maintained his grip. "Put me down or I'll kick you again!"

"Not until you calm down."

"No way!"

"Then I'm not putting you down. So stop wriggling, your spikes hurt."

Robotnik adjusted his glasses, pushing them back up his nose, and dusted the shoe prints from the front of his red shirt. He looked quite irritated as he took the clipboard from Porker and attached the paperwork to it. He walked up towards Johnny and the wriggling hedgehog, but stopped out of range of Sonic's kicks. Not for want of him trying. Robotnik waited quite calmly until Sonic wore out, and flopped in Johnny's arms, puffing and glaring at him, before waving a hand to indicate that Johnny should put him down. The rabbit slowly lowered Sonic to sit on the floor, and rubbed his chest where the blue quills had ground against it. Porker kept his distance, loitering near the door as Robotnik passed Sonic the clipboard.

"Read this. It will explain what I have been doing on the east side, why I was in the Green Hill with my robots, and I do hope it will clear things up between us."

"Not bloody likely. You've still been trying to kill me and that ain't gonna be patched over with a bit of paper. You're just lucky I'm patient or I'd rip your face off right now."

"Hmm. By all means, if you don't like what you read, you're welcome to try." Robotnik turned his head to the third door, where two; much larger than the rest that Sonic had seen; Buzz Bombers were patrolling, and a pair of large rabbit-shaped robots that had springs instead of feet stood either side of it like sentries at a palace.

Sonic just hissed at them, glared at Robotnik, then snatched the clipboard and started reading the paperwork on it. Robotnik stood up straight again, his rotund body looking odd on skinny legs, and even more strange when he was the same height as the tall rabbit nearby. Sonic decided he looked like someone had drawn a stick figure with a gut and made it real. The scientist called Johnny to follow him as he walked towards Porker, and the rabbit cast a cursory glance at Sonic before following. The hedgehog was quite content sitting on the floor as he read the sheets, though he was starting to bristle again. Johnny jogged over to catch up with the scientist and the pig, and the three started talking just out of Sonic's earshot. The Emeralds in his backpack were humming again, their warning song, so Sonic looked up from the plans and permissions for a hotel in Green Hill, a security company, Labyrinth renovations, and oversized amusement parks to watch them. Porker seemed quite willing to leave, edging ever further towards the door as Robotnik spoke to them, while Johnny was still rubbing his chest. Sonic felt a little bit guilty about that now, he'd just been doing his job, but if they wanted to side with Robotnik they weren't getting his nice side either. As Porker left when Robotnik nodded at him, the scientist and Johnny started walking back within earshot.

"...are you sure?"

"Of course, Jonathan. What else can I do?"

"Well, I could-"

"Oh no, I wouldn't think it. Now you can go back to your duties, I think Sonic will be a little more manageable now?"

"This clipboard is a load of rubbish!" Sonic yelled at them, and Johnny rolled his eyes.

"Well, we'll be in our office if you need us again Doctor."

"Of course." Robotnik smiled at the rabbit, and Sonic scowled. He couldn't see behind Robotnik's glasses, but he was certain that smile would be proven to be fake if he could see his eyes. "Well Sonic, what do you think of my designs there?"

"You own Spring Yard and Starlight?"

"Indeed I do. Though of course, they're not finished yet." Robotnik walked back around his desk and reached into the drawer again as he spoke. Sonic glanced over to the doorway, where Johnny was still loitering, obviously listening in. "Jonathan, I assure you, nothing will happen in here. After all, I have my security, remember?"

"Those Splats things are quite creepy, Doctor."

"Well I like them. Don't you have work to do?"

"Yeah... Well... 'Bye then." With that, Johnny left, shutting the door behind him. Sonic felt uncomfortable with just himself and Robotnik again. "Well now Sonic, if you've calmed down a bit, maybe we can talk like civilised Mobians?"

"Nope. This is all rubbish! I didn't hear anything about hotel planning for my Zone, and you turned up before Genocide did! Or your robots did anyway, which still counts! You were attacking my Zone for no reason!"

"I most certainly was not."

"Then why were your rip offs armed?"

"The weapons are for defensive purposes only. When Genocide destroyed a good number of them, the safety was deactivated."

"Yeah right. And what about the poor little animals you put in them?"

"They are kept fed and watered, and sheltered, in exchange for powering them. Nothing inhumane happens to them."

"Some of them are just cubs!" Sonic cringed as he slowly got back to his feet, and Robotnik took note of the sluggish movement. "That's completely out of order!"

"Oh? And you speak Terra do you?" Robotnik chuckled.

"Well... No... But I can tell!"

"Nonsense. I take good care of them. Now stop being silly." Robotnik pulled a box from the drawer and held it up. "Do you know what this is?"

"It's a box. What's the big deal? And stop trying to change the topic! You said that you designed those robots to be unsettling to other Mobians!"

"You were hearing things." Robotnik sighed dramatically, placing his hands on his desk and shaking his head. "I had no idea that the trauma you received affected you that much. Genocide must have poisoned you, you ran right through it."

"Stop blaming it on Ge-Genocide!" Sonic sniffed, but maintained his angry expression. "You. Were there. First! ... Huh?"

Robotnik was ignoring Sonic's ranting, and instead had cracked the lid of the box open slightly. Sonic was proving a difficult child to get rid of, but Robotnik had one last idea. The hedgehog's ears were perked up, as if he were listening to something, though no sound came from the box that he was staring at. The scientist chuckled, and drew a pale, frosted surfaced aqua coloured gemstone from the box. He watched as Sonic took a single step towards him, but cleared his throat to warn the boy not to take any more. The Buzz Bombers and Splats robots turned to face them, and Sonic halted. Robotnik at least knew how Sonic had managed to gather the ones he had already.

"You sure you don't know what this is?"

"It's a Chaos Emerald... But what's wrong with it?"

"I assure you that nothing is wrong with the stone. I have had it stored in cold storage to keep its unstable energy in check."

"Unstable?"

"Yes. It's why I've been trying to get them from you, they're far too dangerous for a child to be carrying around. In the wrong conditions they can cause devastating damage to the people and environment around them."

"Why?"

"Well, they radiate a dangerous energy known as Chaos." Robotnik rested the stone on the desk as he reached back into the drawer to being out a book. He kept his eyes on Sonic, he didn't know what would happen if the hedgehog gathered the rest of the Emeralds, but he also didn't wish to find out. "Here, this book explains a little. The problem with Chaos is that it is excruciatingly difficult to study, but what knowledge has been gleaned was mostly discovered by a scientist known as Gerald Kintobor. He was quite mad, but quite the genius."

"Really."

"Indeed. A lot of his work was lost through some accident or other at his research station. This book is one of the few pieces left. Come and have a look, if you will."

"No." Sonic bristled. "Whatever crap this guy came up with, I don't care. Gimme that Emerald!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Sonic." Robotnik tucked the jewel back into the box, and shut it. He watched as Sonic's ears bent backwards, and the hedgehog hissed at him. "Kindly hand over the backpack and every Chaos Emerald you've collected."

"If these are as dangerous as you say they are, then I'm not gonna give them to you! You'll just use them for evil!"

"'Evil'?" Robotnik laughed "Oh Sonic my boy, this isn't some comic book, I'm not a super-villain or anything of the sort!"

Sonic growled. "I can grab it from you in a split second, Eggman. So hand it over."

"And I can call my guards on you just as fast. Stop acting stupid. You're just a child."

"I'm not stupid!"

"You have no comprehension of what you are contending with, my boy." Robotnik put the book back into the drawer. "And you-"

He was interrupted by an alarm sounding out, and the lights around the walls swapped from pale blue to a flashing red. Sonic jumped backwards as a large piston slammed upwards from the floor below him, crashing flush against the ceiling. Robotnik grabbed the box containing the Chaos Emerald and jumped inside an open side of the piston as it dropped back below ground level. The large sentry robots moved to guard the open Labyrinth exit as Sonic started to run towards it, blocking his path. The Buzz Bombers fired warning shots at him, and he stepped back.

"Robotnik! What's going on?" Sonic yelled, forced to flip away from another piston as it crashed upwards. "And what maniac builds his office with moving and crushing parts?"

"Something has set off the emergency generator. Which happens to incorporate part of my office. There must be a malfunction over at the Metropolis Zone." Robotnik was sitting in a different piston, one that had come from the ceiling instead.

"Metropolis?" Sonic charged at him, but he retreated back into the roof of the room. Sonic looked at the floor, and noticed there were four large circles on it; the tops of four pistons. They circled the desk, and were in turn circled by four identical pistons that were in the roof. He jumped forwards as the circle he stood on shook, and got off of it before it slammed into the roof again. "Whoa!"

"Metropolis is the power station that powers the west side, Sonic." Robotnik yawned.

"Why the heck is your office a back up generator?"

"Space is limited."

Sonic bristled. The whole thing smelt like a set up to him, no matter what Robotnik said. How convenient that Johnny and Porker had left before this 'malfunction'. How useful that the reinforced door just happened to have been open in this room full of smashing pistons. And how coincidental that the pistons happened to have a hollowed out space in them that Robotnik could stand in. Sonic wasn't sure if the factory really did power the east side, but right now, he didn't care. The singing Emeralds on his back had changed their song, and Sonic felt as if they were angry at Robotnik keeping the seventh one. It felt to him like they were asking him to get it back, and Sonic was sure it would be a good idea. The aqua Emerald hadn't sung so loudly, it had sounded... sick. Sonic didn't know whether jewels could catch colds or not, but either way, that frozen container needed to go. So the little hedgehog watched the piston circles, and as one of the roof ones, and one of the floor ones nearby, shook, he crouched down, ready to spring.

Robotnik gave a startled cry as an angry ball of spinning blue spikes crashed into the side of the piston he stood in.

"Sonic! What do you think you are doing?" He yelled as the extended arms retracted.

"Give me the Chaos Emerald." Sonic's sadness and curiosity had both disappeared from his voice, leaving just a cold command. "I'm not playing any more."

"You are being a fool! Do you have any idea of how much this place is worth to South Island?" Robotnik caught a momentary glare from glowing emerald eyes as he dropped down in a different piston, cursing how they only linked to one another above and below his office, before the hedgehog spun into a ball and crashed into the one he stood in.

"I don't care! You've already taken everything from me, it's my turn!"

"I didn't want to do this, my boy, but you've left me no choice."

Robotnik slammed a hand onto a console inside the piston as it retreated, and Sonic scowled at the roof after him, expecting him to come back down. Instead, there was a pink glow coming from the corners of the room, which Sonic watched as it intensified. The light formed into plasma balls, which fired at him, converging on his position surprisingly fast. They only hit metal, however, fizzling away, while Sonic stood on Robotnik's desk, tapping a foot. As the scientist came down in a different piston, Sonic jumped at him, uncurling from the ball to snatch the Emerald in the case from him. He flipped away from Robotnik as the piston retreated again, and stood in one spot as the plasma energy fired again. He took a step sideways, letting them vanish against the metal again, while he opened the case.

It was extremely cold, even with his gloves on, and he almost withdrew his hand from the surprise, but he grasped the gemstone and pulled it free, tossing the case on top of the nearest piston as it slammed towards the roof. Robotnik watched from the one that had dropped down as Sonic appeared lost in thought, staring at the frozen gemstone. There was no reason that the hedgehog would need the jewels, and he couldn't comprehend the power they held. Sonic had no idea that Robotnik had already drained it of most of its power, and had the energy stored in special containers elsewhere. The scientist pressed the console to stop the energy weapons from firing as he jumped out of the piston, and stood behind Sonic. He reached towards the hedgehog, intending to simply remove the Emeralds from his backpack, but the bag started shining, and Robotnik found himself unable to press any closer. He watched as an invisible up-draft caught Sonic's spikes, blowing the rigid quills like regular fur. Then he realised; Sonic hadn't only had three Emeralds in that bag. He had six. And he'd just grabbed hold of the seventh one. The legendary seven Chaos Emeralds. Robotnik had only ever managed to catch traces of a trail of six of them; which always vanished before he could follow them; but if the legends were true...

The human decided that now would be a good time to depart.

Porker huffed and puffed as he ran after Johnny and the rest of the staff from the Scrap Brain. An alarm had sounded just a few minutes after the emergency back up for the Metropolis Zone had started, indicating a critical failure and that all staff were to leave the premises. Of course, Porker was one of the first to oblige, but the rest of the staff had caught up quick enough, and most were overtaking towards the edges of the fields surrounding the Scrap Brain. The pig tried his hardest, but nothing ever seemed to go his way, and at that moment it seemed as if even Johnny was going to leave him behind. The rabbit slowed however, giving Porker a chance to catch up.

"I don't know why you're panicking, Porker, the Scrap Brain's not going to explode or anything. The alarms are just a precaution."

"Yeah, b-but how can you be c-certain?"

"Aren't the walls super reinforced or something? No explosion would get very far." Johnny stayed cool and collected in almost any situation, Porker envied that.

"I-I guess so..."

Porker took a moment to catch a breath while Johnny waited for him. The rabbit chuckled. "Come on, we've got to get to the meeting place anyway before Robotnik decides we're fired."

"O-okay, you're r-right Johnny... But c-could you slow down a bit? I can't walk as quickly a-as you can, and-"

Porker was interrupted by a loud, and growing louder by the second, rumbling. The ground beneath them shook, and the pig tripped mid-step as he walked towards Johnny. The rabbit looked back towards the Scrap Brain Zone, past Porker as he ran towards him, and noted Robotnik floating out of it in a hurry in his little hovering craft, followed in the air by his creepy guard wasps and even creepier sprung rabbits on the ground. Johnny called up to him as he flew overhead.

"Hey, Doctor? What's going on?"

"I sincerely advise that you evacuate the area!"

"But the plant-"

"Factory or your lives, fuzz-ball, it's your choice!" Robotnik didn't stop, instead shouting the comment back at them.

"But what-"

The loud rumbling changed abruptly to a far louder 'ka-boom', and Johnny found himself having to duck a flying piece of wall as the Scrap Brain exploded. Or, more precisely, something punched through the wall, rocketing upwards towards the sky, followed by the explosions within the building, that were taking the easy way out. Porker hid behind Johnny, as they both watched the ball of golden light shine in the sky amongst the stars. The pig wasn't able to look at the suspended glow for long, but Johnny squinted, trying to get a better view.

"J-Johnny, it's a s-star!"

"Don't be silly, a star doesn't come out of a building."

"It's... it's like that b-b-blue one! It's bad l-luck! W-we should go!"

"That's a load of superstitious nonsense. What is it...?"

"J-Johnny, wh-where's that S-Sonic kid?"

"Sonic? The little blue guy? …. Oh man, Robotnik didn't leave the kid in there did he? Porker, we have to go get him!"

"B-But-"

"Come on!"

"W-wait! That s-star, it's m-m-m-"

"Moving?"

Johnny finished Porker's sentence as he noticed it too; the golden object was drifting slowly through the clouds that were starting to form, vaporising them as it passed through them, and trailing shining flecks of vapour in its wake. It was coming lower, passing through the smoke of the burning within the factory, and as it cleared it, the rabbit gasped. Leaving Porker aside, he stepped forwards, watching the form.

"Porker! It's a person!"

"W-What?"

"Whoa!"

Without warning, the shining shape dropped like a stone, plummeting towards the ground in their direction and turning as it fell. Johnny sprang into a sprint, charging towards where it was heading. Porker flinched as the figure crashed into the rabbit, knocking him off his feet and to the ground in a cloud of sparkles and dust. The glow within the cloud faded rapidly, but Porker slowly edged towards it.

"... Johnny?" He didn't want to risk getting too close, in case that fallen star was dangerous, but he wanted to make sure that Johnny was okay. A cough within the rapidly dissipating dust cloud and the tips of two ears peaking up through the top of it answered him. "Johnny! Are you okay? W-what was it?"

Another small cough, and a groan, as Johnny stood up, lifting something. "Porker... You're the smart one..."

Johnny stepped out of the cloud, carrying the little blue spiked body of Sonic in his arms. He was battered, burnt and bruised, but breathing, and the motion of Johnny's walk shook a last few small, glitter-like particles of glow from the tips of his quills. He hung limply in the rabbit's hold, and his sleeping face showed a peacefulness that he hadn't displayed when he'd been in Robotnik's office. Johnny looked at Porker, who recoiled at the sudden attention.

"... So how is this kid still alive?"

"I-I-I-I-I don't know..."

Sonic twitched, and the pig flinched, as if expecting the hedgehog to jump at him like he had at Robotnik. But instead, Sonic wrapped his arms around Johnny's chest, and pressed his face into his fur, starting to cry in his sleep. The rabbit looked down at him, and Porker shook his head. The young hedgehog muttered, half opening one eye to look at them.

"... thanks..." he croaked hoarsely.

"You're welcome..." Johnny replied quietly.

"I-is he okay?"

"... He's gone back to sleep... Come on. We need to get him to a doctor, and find Robotnik."

"B-but..."

"I'm sure it'll all be cleared up. Let's go."

Johnny started jogging across the fields, carrying Sonic carefully, the only usable light coming from the stars and the moon above. Porker rubbed his shoulders, looking back at the power plant as it burned behind them, before running to catch up with Johnny, not wanting to be left behind. He didn't much want to be around that Sonic boy either, the kid had just been blasted out of a wall reinforced to withstand high pressure by an explosion, and had still been alive to say thanks to Johnny for catching him.

Porker hoped that this was all one very crazy dream.

-TBC-


	12. Ocean Views and Golden Stars

**Blue Star**

Part 12: Ocean Views and Golden Stars

The clouds drifted past the small, red biplane as it flew through the sky, followed by a flock of bluebirds. The pilot turned the stick and the plane followed his command, diving through the air, before turning upwards again in a loop. The Alta birds kept going forwards on their migratory path, so the plane ended up behind them, following them for a short while, before it turned to go back the way it had come. It flew low over the ocean, and a pair of dolphins leaped out of the water alongside it. The pilot laughed at the splashing animals, shaking water they spat at him from his quills, and tossed the Aquas a ball. One of them dived below the water and slapped it back at him with its tail.

Sonic put up a hand to knock it towards them again, keeping the other on the controls of the plane to keep it steady. The other dolphin jumped out of the water to flick it airborne again with its beak, then passed through the gap between the wings of the plane before landing with a splash back in the water. The first dolphin mimicked the action on the other side of the plane as Sonic caught the ball again, resulting in an alternating pattern of splashing that raced along after Sonic's aircraft. The hedgehog may not have liked water much, but dolphins were amusing. And a playing with them was great way to relax. Sonic went out there regularly to hang around with this pair in particular, as they often broke away from their pod to join him. The others weren't so keen on the biplane.

Sonic waved goodbye to his aquatic friends as he flew off towards the shallow reef around the northern edge of South Island, and they flipped in mid-air before splashing off to head back towards their pod. The hedgehog watched them leave over his shoulder, then pulled back on the plane's controls to take it higher, allowing him to fly above the eastern side of South Island, and letting him observe it from the air. It had been over a year since he'd left the Green Hill Zone, and in that time a lot had changed. He watched as he passed above the remaining wreckage of the Scrap Brain Zone. Robotnik hadn't decided to rebuild it, so his robots were clearing up the Zone's mechanics to be put to use elsewhere. The few remaining villages on the east side, including the Marble Village, were going to use their own power sources, so the Scrap Brain was no longer needed. Sonic frowned at Starlight and Spring Yard as he passed them, knowing they were both going to be incorporating generators into their builds. The computer that he'd found on his travel had turned out to be Porker's, one of the people who'd helped him after Scrap Brain exploded on him.

Sonic couldn't remember most of what had happened after he'd entered the Zone, he wondered if he'd been running through it asleep or something. The only thing that he knew afterwards was that he had really wanted to take to the skies. It took a while, but with Johnny's help he eventually got hold of his own aeroplane, and promptly modified it to make it easier for him to pilot. When he wasn't running, he was flying, and he never tired of the view above his home island. He often tried to get Johnny and Porker to come along, but Johnny was usually doing something with his family or travelling elsewhere, and Porker was scared of heights. Sonic often wondered how he'd repay them for their help since he met them, but it was hard to think of something appropriate. The hedgehog looked down at the Zones below, he was passing the Marble Zone and from his position he could also see the Hill Top Zone. The volcano Zone was too dangerous to land the biplane on, but Sonic intended to visit there sometime, as the people that lived there looked interesting. He turned his attention back to the sky ahead, and the other aircraft in it. It was over the ocean past the Green Hill Zone. Sonic sighed as he looked at the green fields and crystal rivers below. He wouldn't set foot there again, but it didn't stop him missing his family as he passed above it. He continued past the Zone, heading towards the large airship ahead.

The airship was an enormous air bound craft the size of a village, though it was still in construction. There was a narrow landing strip at the top, where Sonic landed the biplane, skidding to a stop near to a crane. He climbed out, and grabbed a cable from nearby, attaching it to the framework he'd affixed to the bottom of the plane to prevent it sliding off the airship. Stretching, the hedgehog jumped up onto the top wings and reached down into the cockpit to fetch out a small box with ring patterns printed over it, then dropped back down and started walking along the small runway towards a door in the nearest wall. The strong winds weren't much of an issue for him, and his new shoes gripped the surface well, allowing him to walk with minimum compensation for the winds caused by the movement of the ship. He was pleased, the majority of the aircraft was his own design, and the rest was Porker's. The pig was good at actually knowing all the technical stuff, while Sonic worked by whim. Most of the aircraft was a steel grey, as it hadn't been finished, but the parts that were; mostly the wings and the fins; were being painted a golden yellow colour by little spider like robots he'd made. He grabbed the handle of the door and slid it sideways, dislodging one of the small spider robots from the frame as he did so. He nudged it aside with a foot, and went inside the ship.

Inside was much the same as the outside, and Sonic had to dance around his spider robots to avoid stepping on them as they dragged cables around the floors. Porker had wanted the ship to be finished completely before it took off, but Sonic was only patient until the mechanics and main structure had been completed. Most of the remaining work was finishing touches, and panelling the internal walls, and that was half finished by then anyway. Sonic chuckled lightly as he ducked a swinging robot, and walked through into a wide room, where a pair of larger monkey shaped robots shifted furniture around. The hedgehog hadn't originally had an idea for what would've been inside the ship, but Johnny and Porker both had their own thoughts on what it could have, so Sonic had run with it. It would have to do as part of his thank you, making his sky bound dream partly theirs too.

Sonic strolled past the monkeys and through one of many doors on the other side of the room; which was looking more and more like a comic book hero meeting place, and would continue to do so if Sonic had his way; into a different, smaller room. The cabin had a simple bed in it, and Sonic dropped onto the white sheets calmly, lifting the patterned box over his head to examine it. Next to the bed was a table covered in pieces of scrap and a gold ring that he had found that hadn't vanished on contact, as well as a few large, rolled up sheets of planning paper.

The box itself was nothing special; a simple wooden container with engraved rings that had been painted gold, but Sonic liked it, he took it most places with him. Inside it were some of his favourite tools, and trinkets that would seem trivial to most people that he'd gathered from places he'd been to, such as pressed flowers and leaves or pieces of driftwood. He sat up and opened the box, digging amongst its assorted contents to fish out a green handled screwdriver, which he tucked behind his left ear, then carried on digging. A knock came at his door, and Sonic gave a slightly irritated huff as he looked up at it.

"Come in, it's open." he said, finding a pair of green glasses from inside the box, putting them on as he shut the lid. He slid the container out of sight behind the pillow as the door opened.

"Sonic, you're wanted on the bridge." Johnny smiled from the doorway. "Playing with your stuff again?"

"Hey, it's more than just stuff!"

"It's stuff."

"Yeah, but it's special stuff."

"Whatever you say, Sonic." The rabbit chuckled and made a wave out of the cabin. "You'll be late."

"Johnny, I am never late." Sonic grinned and jumped off his bed, walking up to his friend in the doorway. He stood up tall, trying to make himself look bigger, but Johnny still towered over him at almost twice his height including the ears. "Race ya."

"That's not fair."

Before Johnny had finished his sentence though, Sonic had started running. He skidded on a sharp left as he exited his cabin, bolting through a different door and down a long corridor, knocking spider robots everywhere as he passed. He laughed and apologised to them, sliding around a right hand turn that brought him into another large room. This resembled more of a ballroom, complete with sweeping staircases at the edge that curled upwards to another floor. Sonic knew it was mostly a storage room though, and the huge crates under the balcony-like floor contained most of the remaining parts of the ship. He turned to run up one of the staircases, finishing the flight with a backflip that allowed him to put his feet on the roof, before he pushed back off and charged along the balcony to pass through a wide doorway at the end. He skidded left, then right again to go through another large door frame, and charged along the corridor towards the front of the airship. This corridor was the longest uninterrupted one on the ship, and was mostly finished, to the extent that electric scooters had been provided at both ends for anyone who needed them. Sonic used the room to run.

He charged towards the wall, leaping at it to run along it with a clattering of metal for a few moments, before he dropped back to the floor and sped full pelt towards the doors at the end. He stopped running, sliding on the metal with a screech of rubber, and came to a halt inches from the door. Straightening his spikes and glasses out, he pushed it open and walked through onto the bridge.

"Ah, Sonic my boy, I expected you to get here sooner!"

Sonic grimaced. The ship may have been his concept and design, the robots working on it were hand built by himself, but Doctor Robotnik had provided the funds and materials to get it airborne, in exchange for being allowed to captain it when Sonic wasn't available. The hedgehog had reluctantly agreed, since the scientist had insisted upon helping him recover from his 'traumatic experience'. If he had been alone, Sonic would have ignored the offer since he was sure that he was right, but Johnny had stood by him and encouraged him to accept. The rabbit had a trustworthy face, and a habit of putting himself in harms way; when Sonic had been told he'd hurt him, and Sonic had found himself unable to remember, Johnny had told him not to worry about it; so the hedgehog did it for his sake, not Robotnik's. The rabbit hadn't left his side after Scrap Brain, and Porker was just as reassuring, though in his own way. He didn't seem to like being too close to Sonic, though the hedgehog wasn't surprised, he wasn't the first person to act nervous around him and he certainly wouldn't be the last. Sonic sighed and pushed his glasses back on his nose as he looked at Robotnik, sitting in the captain's chair amongst several more monkey robots that worked the controls of the aircraft.

"What do you want this time?"

"No need to be so abrupt, Sonic, I just wanted to see your input on a few modifications to the power systems in the Metropolis Zone."

"Again? I only gave you some suggestions last week!"

"I know, I know, but your plans are difficult to comprehend and my robots cannot work if they are unsure how."

"I don't do blueprints well, okay? I work from what's in here-" Sonic tapped the side of his head. "- you're the one who's supposed to do the blueprints, I only tried that time because you were busy or whatever."

"You did well, you just forgot some details, otherwise it's pretty much sound. Come over here and we can sort this out."

"Yeah yeah, I'm coming."

Sonic walked over, scowling and pulling the screwdriver from behind his ear as he peered over at the blueprints on Robotnik's table. One of the robots noticed the tool, and bounced over towards Sonic, rattling. The hedgehog rolled his eyes, and grabbed the monkey robot by its arm, starting to tighten some loose screws. Robotnik chuckled.

"These robots of yours are fascinating, my boy."

"Whatever."

"No, really. What do you call them?"

"Coconuts."

"And you build them-"

"All without blueprint stuff, yeah. Why are you asking? Wanna steal them too for your cyborg bots?" Sonic turned a glowing glare on the scientist, who put his hands up.

"Heavens no, I was merely admiring them. You have a real eye for perfection in your designs."

"Eh." Sonic let go of the Coconuts arm, and it handed him the other one to fix.

"And some magnificent artificial intelligence too."

"Sod off, you ain't having my program."

"Oh I wouldn't dream of taking it my boy." Robotnik watched Sonic repair the monkey. "But how did you come up with all the coding without any experience?"

"I told you before, and my answer's the same. I just know."

"Very well. How many of these Coconuts did you make?"

"Enough. And I know exactly how many there are, so you better not go stealing one."

"Would I do such a thing?"

"Yes."

Robotnik grunted his displeasure at how shortly Sonic was answering him, but the hedgehog was a teenager, it was to be expected. The scientist had done some research about him, and Sonic had confirmed it in unwilling answers when asked. The fact that he turned blue after some explosion underneath the Emerald Hill Zone had fascinated him, but the hedgehog wouldn't say anything more than confirming it was true. He would say nothing about his dazzling speed however, the aspect of the boy that Robotnik was most fascinated in. Sonic could cross large distances in minutes that would take other people hours to complete on foot, so Robotnik knew there was something amazingly logic defying about his anatomy, but Sonic wouldn't consent to him testing it. As far the hedgehog was concerned, he ran fast, and that was that. Robotnik didn't waste any opportunity to observe the running however, and Sonic running the length of the airship he called the Gold Star on request of his friends was often a good measure, on the occasions that he didn't slow down to spite him.

Sonic finished repairing the Coconuts and sent it back to its station, before turning back to look at Robotnik. He glared over his glasses and growled.

"Stop staring at me. It's rude."

"My apologies, I can't help but try and place the shade of your fur."

"It's blue, does that help?" Sonic snatched the blueprints from the table and walked over to a spinning chair near one of the Coconuts' consoles, dropping into it as he read over them.

"Really now, is the attitude necessary Sonic?"

"Yep."

The exchange continued for a while, with Sonic snapping back at any questions Robotnik asked him, before the hedgehog handed back the blueprints with some hastily scribbled notes on the edges of them. He stretched, then shook, scattering loose quills over the floor and the scientist, and grinned wickedly as opposed to apologetically when Robotnik ended up with half a dozen blue needles sticking out of his nose. Sonic started walking towards the door while Robotnik started plucking the quills from his nose, wincing. Johnny stepped into the room at the same time, almost bumping into Sonic, who grinned at him and tugged his arm.

"C'mon Johnny, I'm all done here. Let's go check on the Darters on the wings."

"But Sonic?"

"What?" Sonic tilted his head, frowning at Johnny. "What's wrong now?"

"There's a problem in the engine rooms now, one of the Coconuts got itself tangled in the machines."

"Couldn't you pull it out?"

"Not really, it's stuck. I did try. You and your robots, I don't understand those."

"Neither do I. But at least I don't use them for evil." Sonic cast a glare over his shoulder at Robotnik, who was putting the quills in a neat pile on the arm of his chair. "You better throw those away when you're done, Eggman!"

"My boy, what could I do with these? They will be thrown away, don't you fret. I wouldn't leave them to clutter up the bridge."

"Good. Keep an eye on him Coconuts." Sonic stared at one of the monkey robots as it squeaked a reply. "Awesome. C'mon Johnny, let's go get that engine fixed."

Sonic led Johnny back along the corridor, at a slower pace than he'd come to the bridge so that the rabbit could keep up. They walked calmly, their feet clanking on the metallic floor, and chattered. Sonic explained why the Coconuts were prone to falling into the engines, there seemed to be a glitch in their programming that could sometimes override their sensors, though one seemed more likely to do it than the other. Sonic realised that it was probably the same one that had done it again, and was tossing the screwdriver in the air as he walked alongside Johnny, who confirmed his suspicions. A Coconuts came running up after them, squeaking and carrying a rolled up mass of paper, which it tapped Sonic with to get his attention.

"Huh? Oh! I forgot Eggy was gonna bring that up with him this time. Thanks Coconuts."

Sonic took it from the monkey robot, who saluted and ran back towards the bridge. Johnny chuckled at the programmed display of respect, and Sonic stuck his nose in the air indignantly. Though that only made him look up at the rabbit, but to Sonic a display of being insulted was the same whether the person was taller than you or not. Johnny patted Sonic on the head playfully, and the hedgehog laughed.

"He remembered it after all Johnny."

"What?" Johnny blinked as Sonic unrolled the paper, then laughed. "Oh, that."

"Whaddaya mean 'that'? This here," Sonic swiped the unrolled comic book with a hand, "will be regarded as a classic one day!"

"I'm surprised it made it past the first issue."

"Hey! Killer Zombie Penguins is epic. You don't really think they'd have axed it after the first issue do you?"

"Well..."

"Oi! Do I say 'Carrots Monthly' needed axing?"

"Yes."

"No I don't!" Sonic paused for a moment, thinking. "Okay, maybe I do, but that's because it's awful."

"And zombie penguins makes no sense."

"Sure it does! More than a flipping carrot recipe magazine!"

"At least my magazine is useful."

"KZP is useful too! It tells us how to be prepared for the zombie penguin apocalypse!" Sonic flailed his hands in the air dramatically.

"... Yes, whatever you say Sonic..." Johnny rolled his eyes and started walking ahead.

"See? You have it now!" Sonic laughed and jogged after him, tucking the comic under his arm.

They carried on walking, heading down a corridor that lead back towards the middle of the ship. It was much the same as the rest in the ship, and Sonic wondered if he should think of different things to put in each one to make them look unique, so that he wouldn't get himself lost in it. He asked Johnny, but the rabbit shrugged, saying that the Gold Star was Sonic's ship and he could decorate it how he wanted. They made their way downwards towards the engine room that kept the ship airborne, passing great cables and controls for the turbines that were built on the external hull, until they stepped into the engine room. The doors opened and the sheer noise and heat of the working turbines and jets below the ship assailed their ears and faces. Sonic wasn't bothered by the noise, but Johnny put on a pair of mufflers to keep his sensitive ears from being hurt.

The engine room took up the majority of the lowest deck and was the main location to work on the maintainence of the jets, though there were alternate rooms for the engines at the back of the ship. The floorspace was taken up primarily by giant pipes and axles, enormous fuel tanks, and various temporary work stations which were set up near cabinets full of fiddly mechanics that Sonic hadn't quite been able to figure out himself; he'd left it to Porker to get the ship airborne. There were Coconuts robots climbing around the room, using their complex hands to reach inside mechanics where it was too dangerous for Sonic to. The ones programmed to work in the engines had no tails, unlike the ones across the rest of the ship, to minimise the risk of them getting caught in the machinery. Their feet were modelled like their hands to compensate and help them climb around the room, Sonic called the engine room models Coconut-C, though he was often prone just to calling them 'bots' when he was in a hurry.

One of the Coconuts was watching something behind a fuel tank, and Sonic walked up towards it, while Johnny stayed back near the entrance where it wasn't quite so loud. The hedgehog snorted as he rounded the fuel tank, glaring over the top of his glasses at the tail sticking out of one of the troughs of mechanics that were at the back of the ship. The protective cover had been moved so that one of the C models could carry out some maintenance, but this normal Coconuts had wandered into the room and gotten caught. It was supposed to be an odd jobs robot, one that ran around the Gold Star and did miscellaneous tasks that it found. Sonic could never figure out why this one always hung around the engines though. No matter how many times he tried to reprogram the thing, it kept falling in the machinery. He decided that when he got it out, he'd scrap it and make a new one. Sighing, Sonic walked over to a nearby control panel, and pressed a button for the intercom.

"Coconuts on the bridge," Sonic yelled into the console, "Shut down the systems for turbines five and six!"

Releasing the button, Sonic watched as the mechanics in the trough stopped, but the Coconuts that had been stuck in it remained stuck. The hedgehog gave an annoyed snort, stepping back across the trough to grab the Coconuts' tail. He put his heels against the raised edges of the machinery, and used it as a support to help him get extra leverage on it. Pulling hard, he started to drag the robot out of the pit, wincing at the sound of grating metal and the smell of leaking lubricants. Yeah, this robot was definitely getting scrapped. He turned around and lifted the tail over his shoulder, then started running. It didn't take much of the extra force from his running before the mangled machine was freed from the trough. Sonic dropped the lump of metal, and walked back across to the communicator, ordering them to start up the turbines again. The machinery in the trench rumbled back into motion, so Sonic watched it for a moment to make sure it was working fine, before he walked over to the robot wreckage and gathered it up. Johnny watched him walk back with the robot slung over his shoulder and leaking oil down his fur, and took his ear mufflers off as he followed him as he started walking back up the corridors.

"Let's take this to the scrap room and then I need a shower. After that, then we'll go check on the wings."

"Ah, actually you might want to skip the shower, there is one other issue."

"... What." Sonic stared at Johnny, waiting for his response.

"Well, in some of the corridors back up, the Coconuts and the Darters aren't exactly co-operating."

"... In what way?"

"Well..." Johnny opened a notepad that he pulled from his pocket, and flipped through. "... Paintball, I think."

"Paintball? They're not programmed to play paintball."

"Well, it's not paintball, so much as the Coconuts grabbing the Darters while they work and throwing them at eachother."

"... Great, more maintainence."

"You don't like to repair them, so... Why did you build so many anyway?"

Sonic shrugged. He hadn't built the first few robots for much reason other than he'd been bored, but when Robotnik had found the concept designs for the Gold Star and agreed to help him build it, Sonic had made more Darters and Coconuts to help, and had ended up with a veritable army of them before he knew it. The initial programming had been easy, since he'd saved the coding separately, but when they broke down, they had a tendency to break down all at once. Sonic sighed and opened a nearby door, tossing the wreckage into it amongst a small pile of assorted scrap, and shut the room up again. He looked at Johnny, and shrugged again.

"Well, do you want me to let them have their fun?"

"You better fix them, they're not finishing the work on the ship and they may end up wrecking it otherwise."

"Mmm, I suppose... Which corridor are they in?"

"The ones that are acting up are on the top deck."

"They aren't scattered are they? Because I really don't wanna go running around gathering them up. They're heavy."

"No, they seem to all be in one room. I locked the doors for now but I dread to think what state that room'll be in."

"You're too tidy."

"Nothing wrong with that, Sonic."

Sonic grinned and wiped an oil stained glove down Johnny's arm, provoking a slightly irritated 'hey' from the rabbit as the glove in turn stained his grey fur. Johnny grabbed the tip of one of Sonic's ears and tugged it in revenge, getting a little yelp back. They both laughed at each other, and made their way to the upper decks, joking about everything from each other's flaws to their favourite books. Sometimes Sonic would stop to fiddle with cables in wall panels, or to tighten the screws on a nearby robot, but Johnny kept walking as he did, because Sonic could catch up in a second no matter how long the tasks took. And if he did stop, the hedgehog would only complain that they weren't getting anywhere fast. The rabbit chuckled during one of these moments, thinking about Sonic's rather contrary nature, and the hedgehog had been quite indignant when he caught him doing so. But Johnny had heard it all before, they'd had that debate of sorts multiple times in the year since Sonic had recovered.

The hedgehog's temper towards Robotnik hadn't waned, but he was quite happy to let the scientist pay for the materials for his robots. Johnny knew that Sonic thought it was his idea, but all the rabbit had suggested was that he let Robotnik help him out, not pay for everything. The hedgehog was really quite spoilt; Robotnik gave him almost anything he asked for, and when Sonic couldn't have something, usually for a very logical reason, he sulked. Which was when Johnny had to talk him out of things that he wanted. Porker had made the comparison between Johnny and Robotnik acting like the stern and fair parents once, and Sonic had given him a black eye before Johnny had been able to catch him. The pig had insisted that he was fine and Sonic had apologised, but Johnny could see that Porker was more anxious than he normally was when he was around Sonic. They'd agreed when the hedgehog was elsewhere that no one should make even light-hearted jokes about family in front of him. Johnny followed Sonic through the corridors, thinking about his temperamental friend, until they reached the room where the malfunctioning robots had been locked in.

"In here, Sonic."

"What?" Sonic stopped mid step, and twirled to face Johnny as he pointed at the door. "In my gym? Why did you lock them in there?"

"The room was already trashed when I got here, it wouldn't have made it any less wrecked to move them somewhere else."

"Aww Chaos, I'm going to trash them!"

"I'd fix their coding, or the others might do the same." Johnny didn't really approve of the way Sonic could casually throw his robots aside, and Sonic knew it.

"Yeah yeah, whatever."

"C'mon Sonic, you need to think a bit more economically."

"I recycle them."

"Yeah, but you use more fuel to do the welding and stuff again."

"... True."

"So fix their programming and stop just scrapping them."

"You do it if you're so smart." Sonic folded his arms indignantly.

"You know I can't, I don't understand that sort of stuff."

"Well then let me do what I want with my robots."

"I do, but I'm just giving you some useful advice, that's all."

"I suppose. But for that you can go in there first, Johnny."

"Oh. Thanks Sonic, really."

Johnny grabbed a long metal pole that rested against the side of the door as he unlocked it and it started to slide open. When Sonic have him a questioning look, Johnny stepped sideways and swung the pole, knocking a flying Darter back into the room before it could hit the floor in the corridor. Sonic cheered as the spider robot bounced off the head off a Coconuts and into another Darter, before he followed Johnny into the room. The rabbit's earlier statement of 'wrecked' didn't even come close. Everywhere gym equipment had been collapsed by robots jumping on it, Coconuts were standing all over the room, or hanging from panels that had been ripped from the ceiling, and every one of them was holding at least one Darter. The room and Coconuts were covered in randomly placed yellow and white paint where the spider robots had been thrown around it. A few Darters were laying bashed up and emptied in a corner, and the Coconuts were adding more as Sonic and Johnny watched. The hedgehog bristled, and Johnny stepped to one side; still holding the staff ready to deflect wayward robots.

"RIGHT! You lot! STOP RIGHT NOW!" Sonic yelled at the robots, who froze in their positions. One Coconuts fell over, having been standing on one foot, and the airborne Darters followed their paths until they hit a wall or another robot and fell to the floor, but the rest remained stationary. "What it the meaning of this?"

"Sonic, you didn't give them a speech program."

"No excuse. You!" Sonic pointed at the nearest Coconuts. "Come here!"

The robot didn't respond, so Sonic growled at it. He dashed forwards into the room and grabbed the robot, but the rest of the Coconuts started throwing the Darters at him instead. Sonic swore at them, and ducked one of the flying spiders, sidestepped another, jumped a third, and continued dancing on the spot to avoid the rest. Johnny repelled some wayward robots with the staff, knocking them back at the Coconuts that threw them. Sonic yelped as one bounced off his head, making him let go of the robot he'd grabbed. The Coconuts skittered into a group together at the wall of the room, gathering up Darters and holding them, all of them focused on Sonic. The hedgehog took his glasses off and tossed them and the screwdriver to Johnny, who put them into the pocket of the vest jacket he was wearing.

"You wanna play rough now, do you?" Sonic addressed his robots. "Well fine then..."

"Sonic, what about repairing-"

"I'll repair them AFTER I shut them all down, okay?"

Sonic didn't wait for Johnny to remind him that his definition of shutting down usually entailed smashing them, but ran directly towards the line of robots. He spun away from more thrown Darters, and jumped on top of the nearest Coconuts' head. It paused for a moment as the hedgehog stood there, but reached up once it registered the change in weight. By that time, Sonic had flipped back off and was reaching into a panel on its back, yanking a cable out of it. The Coconuts fell to the floor, offline, and Sonic dropped the cable onto its head. He turned to face the rest of them, leaned aside to avoid more surprisingly accurate spider throwing, before running at them, repeating the process until they were all offline. The Darters that were still mobile started walking back towards the walls, and resumed their previous painting task without Sonic needing to stop them too. Johnny walked into the room and leaned on his staff, watching as Sonic walked around the inactive Coconuts and picked up the cables he'd removed.

"How long'll it take you to repair them?"

"I just need to reprogram one, then copy the changes over to the others. The Darters aren't in such good condition though, did you see what the Coconuts did to them?"

"Mhmm, those monkeys of yours have a good arm. Ever thought of making them available to baseball teams?"

"No."

"Why not? They'd be good."

"They'd also cheat. And besides, no one's allowed to know I can build robots. You know that."

"I don't get why not, there's no reason people'd dislike it?"

"Johnny..."

"... Yeah, okay. I'll be quiet. Just try think of something more practical for your robots to do when they're done working on the Gold Star though, they're nearly done and it'd be a shame to scrap them all."

"Yeah, I guess." Sonic shrugged. "Maybe I can hire them out to building companies or something, once I get the bugs out."

"I thought you said you didn't want to be associated with them?"

"... Good point." Sonic frowned thoughtfully as he took his glasses off Johnny again. "Eh, I'll think of something. But first, I need a shower. I'm covered in oil and paint Johnny."

"Yup. You look like someone's garage exploded on you."

"Why thank you, it's all the rage lately." Sonic tried brushing the paint splatters off his arms with his hands as they headed along the corridor to the showers a few doors down.

Later Sonic stretched, standing next to his plane, waiting for Johnny to turn up so they could go down to the Emerald Hill Zone. Sonic refused to go to that Zone on his own, though he did want to go back again, just to see if it had changed since he was last there, so Johnny had offered to show him around, as it transpired that the rabbit called that Zone his home when he wasn't out travelling. Sonic yawned for probably the fifteenth time since he'd started waiting. Johnny could walk really slowly when he wanted to. And knowing the rabbit, he was probably making sure things were off or locked as he headed up to the flight deck. Sonic found Johnny's obsession with making sure things were in order useful, but tedious, it just took so long, especially in a place the size of his airship. After a few more minutes, however, Johnny arrived, a little less sure-footed on the deck than Sonic was, but using his staff to help him balance. He made his way across to the aeroplane, smiling.

"The Tornado ready to go?"

"Yeah, is her stand-in pilot?"

"Yup."

"Cool." Sonic jumped up onto the wings, and tapped his foot impatiently. "Well? You climbing in Johnny?"

"Give me a moment!"

Johnny frowned up at the teen hedgehog as he climbed into the cockpit, nudging Sonic's glasses and screwdriver to the side of the floor so he had room for his own feet. He didn't really hold much faith in Sonic's wing walking, or his own ability to catch the hedgehog if he fell, but Sonic refused to install any restraints to support him, nor would he wear a parachute, though he wore the backpack Johnny had first seen him with to gather things up into. The hedgehog was a little hoarder. Johnny called up to him to check he should start the plane, and got a thumbs up response, so he started the engines. They warmed up, and the Tornado rolled forwards, before flying off the edge of the Gold Star. They dived through the sky, and Sonic didn't flinch at the rush of cold air, simply adjusting the position of his feet to minimise the chance of him being blown off of the plane. He waved a hand as they levelled out, indicating that he wanted Johnny to fly the plane in a loop, but the rabbit shook his head, refusing. Sonic folded his arms and pouted.

They slowly descended, heading towards South Island across the ocean. The Gold Star was usually on the move, and today it was over the Mystic Ruins beyond Station Square on the mainland. The Tornado was built for long distances, at least compared to other bi-planes Sonic had seen, so it could cross the ocean easily. Sonic chuckled, and asked Johnny to take it lower as they approached the island, so his dolphin friends could join them. This the rabbit agreed to, as it was distinctly safer. The dolphins failed to appear, however, so Sonic sat down near the end of one wing to look down into the passing water. The rushing waves obscured much of below the surface from view, but occasional dark shadows below it showed creatures swimming. There was a pod of dolphins, but not his ones. A much larger dark shape was further along, which made him shudder and edge back towards the centre of the wings, but Sonic couldn't think what it could be. Sonic looked away from that ominous shadow, and towards the approaching shape of South Island.

"Okay, um, can you take up up a little bit Johnny?"

"Why?"

"Well my dolphins aren't going to show so-" Sonic was interrupted by a whole pod of dolphins leaping out of the water near the plane, apparently in a hurry to get somewhere. "- what?"

"There they are!"

"No, those aren't my dolphins Johnny..." Sonic watched as the dolphins veered off in a different direction, leaping the waves. "... Looks like something spooked them. I wonder what-"

Johnny looked up as Sonic froze, unable to finish his sentence. "What's up Sonic?"

"J-Johnny! Pick up the pace! Do it!"

"What? What's wrong?"

"Just get this plane moving as fast as you can!"

The rabbit frowned, confused, but increased the Tornado's speed anyway. It was Sonic's plane after all, If he wanted it to go faster, it went faster. Sonic was facing the tail of the bi-plane from his perch, and despite having the wind blowing his quills in front of him and hitting his face, the hedgehog was standing rigid, watching something behind them. Johnny flicked a switch on the board in front of him to put the plane in auto for a moment, allowing him to glance over his shoulder. He had to look twice at what he saw there, and even afterwards he didn't believe it. Sonic started running side to side on the wings, with his hands on his head, yelling something like 'no not again', which drew Johnny's attention back to his controls. He flicked the auto off, and started to pull the plane upwards.

The giant orca leaped through the air, and over the top of the Tornado, forcing Johnny to alter the angle of the flight to pass beneath it instead. The killer whale's water trail crashed down on top of them, soaking them both, and Sonic slipped over on the wet wings. He grabbed the edge to stop himself falling off, and just managed to avoid the end of the orca's fluke. Johnny have a startled gasp at the cold water splashing him, and shook his head to clear it from his ears. Sonic looked over the side the orca had landed on, and saw it swimming alongside at the top of the water.

"Argh, not you!" He spluttered, spitting salt water from his mouth.

"Sonic? What's wrong?"

"I know that whale and I think it remembers me too. Get us into the air before it jumps again!"

"Gotcha!" But as Johnny tried to fly upwards, the orca jumped them again, forcing them back down. "Oh bother! Sonic? Any ideas? Because the cockpit's getting flooded here!"

"Just don't crash into Emerald Cliffs or Forest and we'll be fine! Get us to the beach, it won't follow us onto land!"

"Right, but what did you do to it?"

"Long story. Explain later. Land first- argh!"

Sonic clung on as the orca leaped them again, jumping ever closer to the top of the wings. Johnny dropped lower to avoid letting Sonic get knocked off, but the wheels caught a wave, splashing water up with a cracking noise as it hit it hard. The rabbit pulled up again, trying to get higher than the whale could jump, but it forced them down once more.

"Sonic, I think it's after you!"

"No shit Sherlock! Floor it!"

"I don't think the Tornado can go any faster, Sonic!"

"Hit that switch on your right!"

Sonic was too busy holding onto the wing for dear life to show Johnny where exactly, but the dashboard was pretty sparse in terms of buttons, so he hoped Johnny would realise where it was. His fears were diverted as the Tornado lurched forward, pushed by the jet he'd installed into it to satisfy his need to go fast in the air. The orca's teeth slammed shut just short of the Tornado's tail as its next bound didn't take it over the speeding bi-plane. As the whale crashed down into the water, Sonic and Johnny grinned at eachother with relief. The feeling was short lived, however, as there was a wrenching crunch as the Tornado's wheels caught a few large rocks, sending it tumbling forwards and throwing Sonic free from the wings.

"Whoaaa!" Sonic cried out as he sailed through the air between the trees nearby.

"Sonic!" Johnny called after him, following it up with an "Oof!" as the Tornado landed hard upside down on the dune grass.

Sonic's free flight stopped as quickly as it had started, once the hedgehog crashed into a tree. He gave a pained yell on impact, before sliding down the trunk and falling backwards to the ground in a daze. He lay there, trying to recover for a few minutes, just staring blankly up towards the canopy as he slowly regained his senses. Once he remembered how to blink, he did so, then sat up, rubbing his head. He glared accusingly at the tree, but didn't stand up to kick it, still feeling dizzy from the impact.

"Urgh. It jumped out in front of me..." Sonic groaned, then remembered about his friend. He hadn't seen the Tornado flip, but Johnny hadn't shown up yet so he worried. "Johnny? You okay?" He yelled out towards the ocean, where he could see it through the trees.

When the rabbit didn't answer, Sonic groaned and put his hands on the tree, using it to haul himself to his feet, thanking himself for having such a hard head. The dizziness slowly subsided, and Sonic shook the rest away, before starting to run back towards the beach, calling for Johnny. He kicked leaves up in a cloud behind him, and the rustling masked the surrounding sounds, including any calls Johnny might be making back. As Sonic approached the place where the forest gave way to the dunes, he slowed, seeing the wheels of his biplane before anything else. He stopped atop the hill and grimanced.

"My Tornado! ARGH damn that whale!" He skidded down the bank and ran over to the upside down biplane. "Johnny? You okay? Where are you?"

"Augh, still here, Tumbleweed." Johnny waved an arm out of the cockpit, as he started digging himself out from underneath the aircraft. "I think your booster needs some work."

"Yeah... Looks like. Might need to make an anti-orca shield or something too." Sonic held out a hand, and helped pull Johnny free when he grabbed it. "Maybe I could suspend Porker from the tail to distract it from trying to eat me, what do you think?"

"Sonic."

"Yes?"

"No."

"Spoilsport."

"Yep." Johnny stood up once he was free from the plane, and dusted the sand out of his fur. "So how're we going to turn the Tornado back over?"

"Not easily with just us two. Is the Emerald Hill Village close?"

"Umm..." Johnny looked at the forest. "It's past the forest, towards the hills. Quite far. But no one comes to this part of the beach really, the Tornado should be okay if we leave her like this?"

"I'd rather not leave my plane alone. If you can stay here, I'll run up towards the village and grab some help. I am the fastest after all."

"I suppose that makes sense." Johnny nodded, dropping down into the shade beneath the wings. "Go ahead, just try not to get lost this time."

"Me? Get lost?" Sonic snorted indignantly. "Never!"

"Always."

"Never I say!" Sonic pointed dramatically to the sky, but raised a foot. "Be right back, Johnny!"

"Yeah, I'm not going anywhere. Just don't get yourself in trouble."

Sonic had already run back into the forest, trailing clouds of sand behind his feet, before Johnny could finish his sentence. So the rabbit shrugged and settled down for a nap in the shade of the Tornado's wings instead. Sometimes talking to the hedgehog was like talking to a brick wall, except that the wall listened.

Sonic would be back in a few hours, at most, it was just a run through the wide, inhabited by harmless creatures, forest, and a bit of talking in the village. Not even that hedgehog could get in trouble in that short a time span.

Sonic growled as he thought about that, while hanging upside down from a rope that had caught his foot and hauled him into a tree.

"Oh for Chaos' sake!"

_-TBC_


	13. Welcome to the Emerald Hill

**Blue Star**

_Note:_ Lance and Brindle are Forgotten Muse's characters, not mine, I'm using them with permission ^_^

Part 13: Welcome to the Emerald Hill

"Oh come on! This isn't funny! What kind of inconsiderate idiot sets up traps in a public forest?"

Sonic was not impressed, dangling from a tree by a rope that had looped around his ankles was definitely not his idea of fun. He swore loudly and profusely, before curling upwards, grabbing hold of the rope with one hand until he looked like a pendulum. Plucking a sharp quill from between the two large bladed spikes on his back with his free hand, he growled, then started to pick at the thick rope with it to cut it.

It was taking too long, but he couldn't work up the strength to simply spin himself free while the blood was rushing to his head. Plucking the rope's strands apart one by one, he managed to get about a quarter of the way through it, before it suddenly went slack above him, dropping him to the floor with a thump and a yelp.

"ARGH! Okay, who did that?" Sonic flipped back to his feet, kicking the rope off, and bristled, whirling on the spot and looking around in all directions. "Where are you? Come out here and face me!"

Silence was all that answered him, but he stilled, flicking his ears as he listened for any signs of movement in the forest. The remainder of the rope crashed to the floor next to him, scattering leaves into the air with a rustle. He grabbed hold of it, and found the end. It had been cut neatly. Hissing, he gathered it up, looping it over his shoulder, then looked around some more.

"Who are you?"

When nobody answered, Sonic snarled, and started walking past the trees again, slightly more cautiously this time. He was sure the rope trap was a one off, but he wasn't going to take any chances now. Or as many, at any rate, as he leaped across a small tree root that protruded from the ground. As the floor started crumbling on the other side, he sprung back into the air and grabbed hold of a hanging vine, watching the small area of soft soil collapse into a large pitfall trap.

"Okay, that definitely isn't natural." Sonic scowled at the smooth sides of the pit. If he fell into that it'd have been difficult to climb back out of it. "Who the heck's trapped the Emerald Forest? Some people have places to be and all these do is cause delays!"

Swinging his feet, he used the vine to throw himself across the pit and land neatly on the other side. Taking a moment to get his bearings, he started running towards the Emerald Hill Zone again. This time he sped up, opting to go as fast as he could to get past traps before they had a chance to catch him out. Several snapping noises sounded as rope traps were triggered behind his feet, and he went faster, increasing the distance between himself and the traps. He weaved between the trees, jumping up to run across the branches as another pitfall trap made its presence known. He took the rope from his shoulder as he bounced from branch to branch, forming a loop in it and swinging it around above his head. Sonic threw the rope forwards, and swung down on it once it caught onto another tree's limb, swinging over a thorned bush, before letting go and starting to run again as soon as his feet hit the ground.

He grinned as the edge of the trap laden forest came into sight as he darted between the trees. It'd be good to be past the Emerald Forest and on his way to the village to get help to fix his bi-plane. He stepped sideways around another pitfall, and crashed into something quite solid. His momentum wasn't fast enough due to dodging around trees, so when he hit it he bounced backwards from it, landing on his butt in the leaf litter.

"ARGH what the-?"

"You're not supposed to be here, mister hedgehog."

"Huh? Who's there?"

The voice sounded like that of a child, and the teenage hedgehog did not approve of being spoken to like that. Especially after a set of planks had been pulled up in his path. Sonic looked at the rope leading up into the trees from the top of the makeshift wall, and frowned. The rope vanished into the leaves, and he was unable to see who was holding the other end. He got to his feet, brushing the leaves from his quills.

"Well, whoever you are, oh hiding kid, you're not gonna stop me. I need to talk to some folks in Emerald Hill, and you're holding me up."

"You were told not to come back to Emerald Hill when you made a big crater in it three years ago."

"Ahah, so you're from around the Zone. Well that narrows who you are down a bit. But I'm in a hurry, I'll play with you later, kid."

Before the anonymous voice could reply, Sonic had jumped over the planks and started running towards the edge of the trees. There was a fwwp fwwp fwwp noise, from the trees above, and Sonic jumped as a spiked barrier sprung from below the leaves in front of him. As his feet touched the ground, a rope loop snapped around his ankles and he once again found himself hanging from the trees upside down. He growled, annoyed now.

"Okay, get the bloody hell out of the trees and tell me who you are!"

"You gotta get outta my forest."

"Your forest? This is public property kid! Now cut me down!"

There was a moments silence as the stranger contemplated it, then Sonic hit the floor with a thud as the rope went slack. He swore loudly, then jumped to his feet again, glaring up into the trees. His quills stuck on end, some with leaves still attached to them, indicating that he wasn't impressed in the least.

"Come on then, who're you?"

"You're pretty cool. I like the way you run."

Sonic couldn't help but smirk a little at that. "Well, yes, I'm awesome. But everyone knows that and it's not what I asked. I'm not gonna stand here and keep talking to shadows in trees y'know. If you don't come down I'm leaving."

"Ah! N-no, don't go, I was just playing with you." There was a rustle, followed by the sound of claws scratching on bark. "Please, I'm really lonely out here, I didn't mean to upset you, you looked like you'd play with me..."

"I play better when some anonymous kid isn't out to kill me."

"S-sorry... I set up the traps to keep people away when they want to pick on me..."

"So were you trying to play or scare me off?"

"Umm..." A little yellow fox peered out from behind the nearest tree, looking a bit sheepish. "A little bit of both... Maybe?"

Sonic blinked at the cub, who couldn't have been more than seven. "... You set up those traps?"

"... Yes?"

"All of them?" Sonic couldn't believe it.

"Uh huh..." the fox held a hand out, showing its crude bandaging out of something that looked like a stolen sock. "That spiky one's my favourite, but it hurt to set up."

"What the... What kind of bandage is that?" Sonic stepped towards the kid, who backed away back behind the tree. "Oh, come on, even though you tried killing me I'm not gonna hurt ya, y'know."

"Uh uh. I want to play, I don't want you staring at me!"

"Staring? Why would I stare? You're just a fox."

"Nuh-uh."

"You're staring at me pretty hard, do you see me complaining?"

"Uhhh..."

"Come here. We'll go to the village and get you some proper bandages... Oh now where are you off to?"

"Not the village, they'll pick on me." the fox had started climbing back up the tree, only seen from Sonic's position by the little paws clutching onto the sides of the trunk.

"Hey, come back down, I won't let them hurt you."

"No." A small whine, and the fox's hands vanished. "You just go, if you don't wanna play with me. I won't set off any more traps."

"Listen, kid, I-"

"Just go away mister hedgehog!"

Sonic growled lightly, then shook his head. "Kid, will you listen to me?" When there was no response, Sonic continued. "Do you think people haven't picked on me before either? I know how it feels, so it's not like I'll let them pick on you."

"Yeah but you're fast and can run away if they do. All that's weird about you is you're blue!"

"Huh, well that's the first time I've heard that." Sonic cracked his knuckles, and looked into the trees. "You look normal to me kid. Now come down or I'll come up there and get you."

"No."

"I will, I mean it."

"No! You'll pick on me too!"

"No I won't. Listen kid, you're starting to get on my nerves. So come down or I'll cut the tree down."

"That won't work, you don't know which one I'm in!"

"I bet I can find you." Sonic perked his ears up, hearing the fwwp fwwp noise again, but then he remembered what he was doing. "Ah, fine, have it your way kid. I need to fix my plane which is upside down on the beach, so can you point me towards the village?"

"... Plane? ... Umm... Turn a bit to your left." Sonic turned until the fox yelped "Stop, that's it. Just go that way. It goes right to the village."

"Cheers. Well, later kid. Have a nice, paranoid life."

Sonic jogged on the spot, taking each step faster and faster until his legs blurred, and then he was gone in a cloud of leaves and dirt. The fox cub peered after him as he ran off almost faster than he could see, then dug his claws into the sides of the tree, sliding down the trunk. As soon as he felt safe enough, he ran in the direction that the strange hedgehog had entered the forest from. He wanted to see this aircraft.

Sonic made his way out of the forest, and charged up an embankment of semi-transparent green grass that gave the zone its name. Flowers kicked up behind his speeding feet and small Terra animals watched the blue blur streak past them. Sonic chuckled, revelling in the wide open space ahead of him, and accelerated onwards over the lightly rolling hills and stone pathways, log bridges over deep rivers, and towards the small cluster of towering tree trunks ahead that was the Emerald village. A large lake was ahead of him, and he ran around the perimeter, not wishing to slide into it. He knew what had created the crater that now housed that lake, and really did not want the Emerald Hill folk to see him loitering around it.

Skidding into the centre of the village, he chipped a few loose stones from the floor into the air, and found himself apologising far earlier than he'd intended to. The Zone leader; an old raccoon; scowled down at the teen hedgehog, as he stood sheepishly tugging at one of his ears. He shuffled a foot, trying to knock the stones back into the places they'd come from, as other villagers gathered around. Before long, quite a large crowd had gathered, and Sonic wished he had brought Johnny with him. There was an awkward silence as the villagers waited for him to stop apologising and start talking.

"Umm... Hi...?" Sonic found himself at a complete loss for words as he tried to remember what he'd actually come to the village to say.

"What do you want, Sonic?" the Zone leader said, maintaining his scowl.

"Ah.." Sonic took half a step backwards, before remembering that if there was any trouble, he could easily run. "Oh, um, sorry to like, show up without warning you, it was Johnny's idea, but... Oh you won't believe this, eheh, I had a little plane crash on the beach, just a minor thing, and I need to put it back the right way up and well..."

Sonic had strung the words together so quickly in his hurry to explain, that the villagers simply stared at him, trying to register his meaning, before someone behind the taller Mobians in the front row spoke up.

"Slow down wouldya?" a young girl's voice. Sonic tried to see who'd spoken, but while the front row of Mobians turned their head over their shoulders, they didn't clear a gap for him to look through. "No one can hear a thing you're saying through all the neener-neener-neener!"

Sonic scowled into the crowd. He didn't appreciate being spoken to like an idiot, and was about to charge into it to find the person he assumed was pulling faces, when the Zone leader turned back to face him. He quickly threw on a smile, and nervously played with his ear.

"Well?"

Sonic took a breath, and repeated what he'd said already, but slower. Then followed it with, "and I need someone to help me put my plane back the right way up. Me and Johnny can't do it by ourselves, it's heavy."

"Who's this?"

"Johnny Lightfoot? He's from around here. He's waiting by my plane."

"Ahh, Jonathan. I know him." The woodpecker standing next to the raccoon nodded. "Nice guy."

"Yeah, he's my friend, and he's waiting for me to bring back help to flip my plane! C'mon guys, I'm not causing any trouble..."

"Hmph, and how do we know you're not going to either?" The Zone leader still wasn't convinced.

Sonic bristled. "I just wanna put the Tornado back on its wheels! The sooner people help me, the sooner I can get on my way!"

"Why, pray tell, is your plane upside down anyway?"

"Had a run in with a pretty nasty dolphin, and it chased us onto the beach. Plane hits sand awkwardly, wheels stop, plane keeps going, plane ends up upside down." Sonic snorted. "Simple physics."

"A dolphin?" There was a murmur of chuckling from the crowd, and Sonic fumed.

"A big dolphin, black and white, very very big. Bigger than my plane?" the hedgehog looked around at the confused faces in front of him, and gave an exasperated sigh. "It was a giant orca! You know, the flipping HUGE one that lives in the Emerald Coast?"

"Ah, that one. Well, what did you do to upset it? It migrates past South Island every year without any trouble."

"I didn't do nothing to it!"

Sonic fumed, he was clearly not getting through to anyone except that one woodpecker. So he turned his back on the crowd, and darted towards the nearest building, jumping up to sit on the roof with ease. He looked down, emerald eyes piercing the crowd below, looking for any helpful faces amongst it.

"Look, dudes, you can either believe me or not, but I ain't going anywhere without someone righting my plane." He stretched, before adjusting his position to lay on his side, propping his head up with an elbow as he yawned dramatically. "And I'm in no rush."

The woodpecker glanced at the raccoon, who was scowling. Sonic had chosen his roof to sit on, and he wasn't amused. "Thomas?"

"What, Peter?" Thomas turned his glare onto the woodpecker instead, while Sonic flicked bits of dirt off the roof.

"You're a great Zone leader, but don't you think you're being a bit mean for no reason? He is still a kid after all."

"Hmph. A kid who blew a bloody great hole in the Zone."

"That was years ago Tom."

"Your point being?"

"It doesn't matter any more. It's a lake now, which is a little more useful than a blank hill."

"It's the Emerald Hill Zone, not the Emerald Lake Zone."

"One lake isn't gonna change the whole Zone, Tom. Just leave the kid alone, he's a person too."

"Hmph."

"Just leave it to me, Tom. I'll get Sonic sorted out, and he won't cause any trouble. Will you Sonic?"

"No way. Trouble ain't me."

The argument went on for a little longer, before Thomas finally conceded to leave Sonic alone. As the hedgehog jumped down from the roof, the raccoon glared at him again for good measure, before disappearing inside the building. The crowd started to disperse, leaving Sonic standing with Peter, a tall white rabbit with a black patch on one ear who looked like Johnny, a greyhound and a badger, and a large brown bear that Sonic was surprised to see, since he hadn't noticed him standing in the crowd. He smiled up at them all, pleased that they'd decided to give him a hand. The greyhound, who was probably about Sonic's age, didn't look too happy about it, but the others seemed fine with helping out.

Sonic had a foot raised and was about to run to the Tornado, before the woodpecker raised an eyebrow at him. The little hedgehog remembered that no one else could keep up when he ran, so he started to walk instead, with the small group following him. The greyhound jogged up beside him, sneering down the end of his long snout. Sonic ignored him. Well, at least until the dog kicked a stone right in front of his foot and caused him to stumble. With quills stuck on end, Sonic turned a glare at him.

"What's your problem?"

"Nothin'."

"Good, because if it were something I'd have to do something about it." Sonic hissed at the dog, who grinned, clearly not worried.

As Sonic turned his head back to the path through the forest, he found himself tripping over a long canine leg. He spun back to his feet before he hit the ground, and whirled to face the greyhound, darting in front of him so he had to stop.

"You did that on purpose!"

"Did not."

"That's it! Take this!"

Sonic pounced at the dog, who stepped aside from the angry hedgehog, and laughed as Sonic crashed into the tree behind him. By now the others in the group had noticed the boys squabbling, and had stopped to watch. The badger watched them with ears raised curiously, and the rabbit and bear stood shaking their heads. Peter was not happy, and stood with his arms folded, frowning disapprovingly at the boys as they argued.

Sonic growled as the dog sidestepped another charge, then followed it up with a lunge, catching the hedgehog in the centre of his back. He punched Sonic to the ground, and was rewarded with a leg sweeping him to the ground too. Sonic continued the motion until he was back on his own feet, and bristled at the downed greyhound.

"What the heck did I do to you?"

"Freak!" the dog barked at him, and Sonic would've jumped on him again, if the bear hadn't scooped them both up by the scruffs of their necks. "Lemme go!"

"Put me down!" Sonic yelled at the same time as him.

"Not until you both behave." the bear answered bluntly.

"Sonic! Lance!" Peter lost his temper finally. This was exactly why he had no children of his own. "If you two do not get along, we won't help you, Sonic." As Lance stuck his tongue out, the woodpecker continued. "And you, Lance, will be in trouble with your parents once I tell them and Thomas."

Sonic sniggered at Lance. "You still live with your parents?"

Lance sneered back. "At least I have them."

Sonic's laugh stopped immediately, and he bristled so much that the bear had to let go of him. It was a well known fact on South Island that Genocide had decimated the Green Hill Zone, and Sonic, being the only known survivor of that particular attack, tended to receive all of the blame. It wasn't fair, and he hated everyone who did blame him, especially so openly. The hedgehog glared at the dog with an intensity that made his green eyes seem to glow.

"Shut up."

Lance folded his arms defiantly. "Make me, shrimp."

Peter intervened before Sonic could 'make him', and the woodpecker smacked both teens on top of their heads. "What did I just say to you?"

"But mister..." Sonic began, not taking his eyes from Lance's sneer.

"No buts." Peter turned to Lance. "You. Go home."

"But tiny here wanted help!"

"And all you're doing is aggravating matters. Go home."

"No." the dog pouted, and along with the folded arms and being suspended off the ground by the scruff of his neck, he was starting to look silly. Sonic had to scowl just a little less.

"Then stop causing trouble."

When the boys were quiet for a while, the bear put Lance down. The greyhound darted over to the badger, and Sonic assumed they were friends. There was a short, tense moment when no one did anything, waiting to see what the boys would do, before Sonic started to walk again. Only this time he kept an ear flicked backwards to listen to the Emerald Hill folk, and to make sure Lance wasn't trying to sneak up on him.

The walk back through the forest was far less eventful than Sonic's trip to the village. The hedgehog was glad the fox had kept his word, he didn't really want to be blamed for any traps that could have sprung up. He ran ahead slightly, trying to remember the exact route he'd taken. That rope from that tree was a good clue, so he led the others around the pitfall below it, with only a brief moment of considering pushing that arrogant greyhound into it. He glanced over his shoulder to look at them. Lance was sulking, glaring at Sonic, but looking away when the hedgehog locked eyes with him, and his badger friend seemed to be trying to cheer him up. Sonic couldn't hear what was being said exactly, they were trailing right at the back of the group. The bear and the rabbit were engaged in quite a one sided conversation, with the hulking bear doing all the talking while the rabbit was concentrating on where his feet were stepping. Peter was quiet too, twitching his head every now and again to look around the forest warily. Seemed that he might have had some run ins with the fox cub before too. Sonic turned his head back to the path ahead of him, and tripped over a tree root he hadn't noticed while looking backwards.

Standing up and spitting out a mouthful of leaf litter, he flattened his ears as he heard Lance burst out laughing. Sonic bristled, wiping his mouth on the back of his glove, and stubbornly refused to look back and glare at the dog again. He started walking again, only flicking one ear backwards to make sure that the others continued to follow. It didn't sound like they'd dropped out, in fact they were hurrying along to catch up with the hedgehog's brisk walk. Remembering the fox's traps, he didn't blame them. The woods seemed quiet though, which puzzled Sonic. The fox had promised not to launch traps on him, but had made no such promises about the others. But if it meant he wouldn't have to save them from any, he certainly wasn't going to complain. He did make up his mind to hunt the child down later and get him cleaned up, however.

The journey continued without any more mishaps, though with plenty of blatantly flung insults from the dog. Sonic managed to ignore them, barely, as they reached the end of the forest and the top of the beach's embankment of sand. The white grains and palm trees created a picturesque image from where they stood, and he could just make out the shape of the Gold Star in the distance, roughly above Station Square. The long coastline of the mainland stretched out along most of the horizon that Sonic could see, miles away, but a wide expanse of water lurked to one side to the south west, opening into broad ocean. The little hedgehog took a moment to imagine what was further than the mainland, but the Gold Star wasn't yet ready for long distance travel, and the Tornado couldn't manage it full stop. Giving a little, dreamy sigh, he looked up and down the coast, a hand above his eyes to shield them from the sunlight, searching for the bi-plane. He caught a glimpse of sunlight glinting off metal a little further along to the south, and darted closer to look, once more feeling a pang of distress at seeing his favourite vehicle on its head. Sonic dashed back to meet the others as they stumbled out of the trees onto the bank, and pointed in the direction of the Tornado.

"It's just over there, I'll go tell Johnny you're coming, see you in a flash guys!"

Without waiting for a response, Sonic charged along the beach in a cloud of sand, and skidded to a stop at the wings of his plane, waking Johnny up when a seashell kicked up by his sudden stop hit the rabbit in the face. The ruffled rabbit sat up in a hurry, brushing the loose sand from his grey fur. He glanced at Sonic out of one, half open eye.

"Hey Tumble, you're late!"

"Am not." Sonic pouted. "Besides, had a little trouble with the Zone Leader."

"What did you do this time?"

"Nothing, I swear! I just accidentally chipped a few stones loose from the path when I stopped! One... Might have... Scratched someone's window..." Sonic threw his hands up defensively as the rabbit put his face in his hand. "Hey! It's not like I did it on purpose!"

Johnny sighed and looked down at Sonic as he stood up. "You've got to get the hang of stopping. So who did you manage to get to help?"

"Umm. A woodpecker, Peter I think his name is. Some bear, a rabbit like you, and some bratty jerk mongrel and his badger friend."

"... We also need to work on your people skills."

"Well it's true!"

"And they're just getting here now."

"Pah, like I care what they think." Sonic pouted and started digging into the sand around the plane, in an effort to get into the cockpit and get a rope, leaving Johnny to deal with the approaching group.

The tall rabbit watched the little blue hedgehog vanish beneath the aircraft in a puff of sand, and shook his head, before turning his attention to the group of Mobians approaching along the beach. Peter strode up to him, still in the lead, and had to look up at Johnny. He smiled and held out a hand, which Johnny shook gladly.

"Young Lightfoot, how nice it is to see you."

"Hey sir." Johnny looked around the group, until he saw the other rabbit. And was quickly hugged by them. "Ah! Melissa! I didn't think you were still around here!"

"Course I am cuz!"

Sonic stuck his head out from under the plane, looking thoroughly confused. "You're a girl?" He'd thought the rabbit was a guy, she'd looked pretty boyish to him with her short fur and wiry figure.

"Yup!"

"Oh, well, hi then ma'am, sorry I didn't say hi before." Sonic shook his head and dived back under the plane, muttering about where the heck that rope went.

"Cute kid, likes to bicker though don' he?" Melissa grinned at Johnny. "Him and that little doggie there went a'rollin' in that jungle."

"Really?" Johnny sighed. "Sorry about that."

"Eh, 'tween you and me Lance mighta deserved it a little." Melissa leaned past Johnny to look at the Tornado. "Whoa, your little hedgie weren' a'jokin' was he?"

"Nope, it was a bit of an interesting accident..." Johnny looked at Peter. "Reckon you guys can help us right it?"

"HER."

The woodpecker chuckled as Sonic put his head out from underneath the aircraft again, and reprimanded Johnny. "The Tornado is a HER."

"Oh, right, I forgot, sorry Tumble."

"Yeah well don't forget again." Sonic disappeared again for a moment, before yelling, "Where the heck has that rope gone?" at the top of his lungs, which sounded odd being screamed through sand, before he burst out from under the Tornado and jumped onto the upturned bi-plane's wings and looked around the sand below, ignoring everyone else.

"Told you we should have brought rope." the bear had to lean down to make his quiet comment heard to Peter, who simply nodded.

Lance and the badger were being quite quiet, the greyhound was still annoyed at having been told off for tormenting Sonic. They stood back a bit, watching the others deciding what to do. The dog had no intention of helping Sonic, the hedgehog was a freak as far as he was concerned. No one should be that strange shade of blue, and no one should be faster than a greyhound, except maybe the cheetahs. He was jealous and he knew it, which made him more annoyed still. Lance snorted as the badger tugged his arm.

"What, Brindle?"

"Shouldn't we be helping?"

"Nope." Lance shrugged Brindle's hand from his arm. "Besides, ain't any way we're getting that lump of scrap the right way up, it's gotta weigh a lot."

"Not if it flies, it's probably lighter than-" Brindle flinched at a glance from the dog, and shut up.

"It's a lump of scrap." Lance repeated. "And besides, why should we help him, huh? Everyone knows he's cursed."

Brindle just responded with a grunt.

"So, we're just gonna watch them and not help."

"Then... Why did we come with them?"

"So we CAN watch, duh."

"Oh... Well, won't we get in trouble if we just watch?"

This time it was Lance's turn to grunt. The badger had a point, and Chaos knew Lance was in enough trouble as it was. Not that he looked for or caused it, of course, it wasn't his fault no one saw things his way. The dog turned his face back to watch the others by the plane, frowning. It didn't matter right that moment anyway, as no one could locate any rope and Sonic was laying on the wings, either looking at something on the far side of the plane, or asleep. Lance thought it was probably the latter, and that the little freak was letting everyone else work it out for him. That's probably what he'd have done anyway. The greyhound yelped as a stone bounced off the back of his head, and whirled around to look for who threw it. His eyes narrowed as he scanned the tree line, but didn't see anything.

"C'mon Brindle."

"Huh? Oh, okay..."

They walked over to the group by the Tornado, further away from the trees. Lance didn't particularly want another stone hitting him. They arrived as Sonic stood up on the aircraft's underside, holding up two thick coils of rope triumphantly. Okay, thought Lance, so maybe he hadn't been asleep. Not that it mattered, they wouldn't get the plane righted anyway. Sonic cast Lance a quick scowl, then darted to the end of the plane's tail to start trying the rope to it. He threw the other coil at Johnny on the way, and the rabbit climbed up to tie it onto the wheel frame. Lance pouted as Johnny tossed the rope at him.

Johnny looked at the others for a moment, before pointing at Lance and Peter. "You two can help me on the wheel rope," he glanced over at Melissa and the bear. "and you two and the badger can help Sonic with the tail rope. We'll get the Tornado the right way up in no time!"

Sonic laughed as he jumped off the plane, holding the rope out to his assigned helpers. Brindle took a moment to look across at Lance, but took his own part of the rope anyway. "Cheers!" Sonic grinned.

"Brindle..." Lanced hissed, but had Peter throwing a length of the rope into his hands too before he could say anything else.

"You're here, you can do your fair share too, Lance."

"But-"

Peter cocked his head sideways and glared at the greyhound, who flinched backwards slightly, flattening his ears. Sonic sniggered, finding the dog's submissive attitude amusing, especially after Lance had picked on him for no reason whatsoever. Sonic nodded, and strolled towards the propeller end of the plane, while Johnny led his group towards the tail end. They explained that Sonic's group was to pull the plane over, and Johnny's was to stop it from falling too fast. Sonic was worried Lance would let go, but Johnny pointed out that the dog would be standing in front of him and he'd stop him from bolting. So they carried on with the plan.

Sonic's group, with Sonic at the closest to the plane, followed by Brindle, then Melissa, then the bear, started to pull. It was hard to get the aircraft to start moving, so they stopped while Sonic dug a ditch for it to tilt into, then started again. This time, the Tornado's nose slid into the ditch, and wedged there, allowing them to up end the plane. Sonic visibly cringed as the aircraft stood vertically for a moment, and Johnny called out, his team tugging the opposing rope tight. Together, the two groups started to lower the aircraft back the right way up, with the bear running across to help Johnny's group instead as it ended up taking most of the weight. The Tornado started falling quicker than they could keep up with, so Sonic's group ran around with their rope to slow it more. Soon the bi-plane was the right orientation once more, albeit a little full of sand, and they all dropped the ropes.

Sonic grinned around at everyone. "Cheers for the help guys, she's a small plane but she'd have been too heavy to move on our own..." He held a hand out towards Peter, who was the most senior of the group. "I hope the Emerald Hill folk won't keep blaming me, I don't wanna stay on bad terms or anything."

"You won't, Sonic. I'll have a word with Thomas, but you'll just have to..." Peter looked over the blue hedgehog, but took his hand anyway. "... Reign in your skills a little when around the Zone. He won't take kindly to any more accidents."

"Gotcha, thank you!" Sonic laughed lightly and scrambled up onto the top of the plane, to start digging the remaining sand from the cockpit. "Um, do you want me to guide you guys back? I got a bit of cleaning to do before the Tornado's ready to fly, but I'll be happy to escort you back-"

"I know the way!" Lance barked indignantly.

"What's his problem?" Sonic muttered quietly to Peter, who shrugged.

"He's like that to everyone, don't worry about it."

"C'mon, I'll lead the way!" the greyhound pointed towards the forest, clearly ignoring the conversation.

"Ah don' ya worry any abou' him, I know the way." Melissa chuckled as the dog and his friend started walking back. She ruffled Sonic's spikes, "y' be good, m'kay kid?" then she grabbed Johnny into an immense hug. "I'll see ya at dinna, righ' cuz?"

"Mhmm, I'll see you later Melissa." Johnny nodded, and pried himself free from her grip. "Please be careful going back, okay?"

"Will do!"

Peter clicked his tongue and the bear leaned down to hear him. "Go fetch the boys, or at least, keep them from going any further unsupervised."

"Okay!"

The bear ran off after the dog, and Melissa started to follow him. Peter nodded at Johnny and Sonic, "I presume I shall see you both later on. Take care meanwhile, boys." With that, he left.

Once the group had disappeared into the Emerald Forest, Johnny looked at Sonic, before starting to untie the ropes from the Tornado. Sonic climbed onto the top of the plane and started digging the sand from the cockpit as his friend untied the ropes. Sonic could tell Johnny was thinking about something, and could hazard a guess at what it was. He leaned over the edge of the plane to watch the rabbit's feet sticking out from beneath it as Johnny freed the underside from the ropes.

"Yeah, those ropes weren't the one I had on the plane."

"Where did you find them, Sonic?"

"On the wings, but I can think of where they may have come from..." Sonic trailed off.

"Can you now?" Johnny stuck his head back out from underneath the Tornado. "Mind sharing this information?"

Sonic looked thoughtful for a moment, before he shook his head. "Naa, I better not, not yet anyway. Sorry Johnny."

Johnny gave an exasperated sigh, and pulled himself out from the bottom of the aircraft. He dusted the sand from his grey fur, and started to roll the rope back up. He'd known what Sonic's answer would be, but it didn't make it any less irritating that Sonic decided when he wanted or needed to share information with him, regardless of its importance. However, the rabbit did not expect Sonic to ask where the first aid kid went, so he directed his friend to it with a bewildered expression on his furry face.

"Sonic? Why do you need-?"

"Oh, um, for stuff! I'll bring it back in a few seconds Johnny!"

"Wait, where are you running off to now?"

"The forest!"

"But what about the Tornado?"

"I've got something else to take care of first-"

"We can't," interrupted Johnny, "leave the plane on the beach." He waited for Sonic to interrupt again, but the hedgehog stood on top of the wings, tapping a foot impatiently. "How about, we take her over to the Village, so I can pay my cousin that visit while you go gallivanting off into the trees to play doctor with the local wildlife?"

"Um." Sonic frowned, before he dropped to a sitting position. "Well, I guess it can wait." Not to mention the fact that he had no idea where the fox cub would be, and it probably wouldn't have been fair to leave Johnny sitting on the beach for hours. "How're we gonna get the sand out of here though?"

"As long as there's nothing stopping the controls working-"

"There isn't, I checked."

"Then we should be able to fly it to the Village, and get a broom or something to i-" Johnny smiled as Sonic shot a glare at him, "I mean, 'her', and get the rest out."

"Hmm, okay, let's do that then."

Sonic grinned, watching Johnny put the rope coils into the cockpit before climbing in himself. Well, at least the villagers weren't going to chase him off again. Though he hoped that the group had got back first to explain, but it'd only be a matter of going into the forest and looking for them himself if they'd got lost. Johnny'd be able to keep the Zone Leader at bay, while Sonic could hunt down signs of that fox again. Triumphantly, he jumped to his feet as Johnny clicked his harness into place, and pointed onwards. The sand was mostly smooth, if all went well the Tornado would be able to get airborne again, if not, they could taxi to an embankment. Either way, they'd been in one spot too long. The hedgehog grinned.

"Let's go! Emerald Hill, ready or not, here I come!"

-TBC


	14. Undergrounds and Waterfalls

**Blue Star **

Part 14: Undergrounds and Waterfalls

After the trouble with his plane was resolved, Sonic spent a lot of his time wandering the Emerald Hill Zone. It reminded him a lot of his Green Hill Zone, which he often took with a moment of bitterness. But the moments tended to pass quickly, as he wandered through the varying areas of the Zone. Sometimes he went down to the forest, to see if he could find that fox cub, other times he made his way to the towering cliffs that cut the view of South Island's volcano from the Zone.

From atop the walls of stone he could survey the majority of the Emerald Hill, and part of the Green Hill; across the huge chasm that was never there when he was young. He was standing there one day, watching towards the Green Hill, remembering the day that his world shifted irreparably. Up there, no one could berate him for screaming; it was a long and difficult climb for most people, and he was far enough from the village for no one to hear anyway. So he screamed. Every person who'd been taken away from him, his family, his friends... He was determined they'd hear his screams and calls for them. Up there, where the sound echoed, seemed the best place to let them know. They never responded, of course, but it was a good place for the young hedgehog to let off steam.

Once Sonic had exhausted his throat, he sat with his legs dangling off the edge of the cliff, kicking at the exposed brown stone. His attention remained focused on the Zone where he'd grown up, as it often did when he stayed on his perch, and he looked it over with piercing green eyes, as if he expected to see the Villagers moving out of hiding places any moment. But he'd followed the same routine for the month since he'd found his secret place, and just like in his flyovers in the Tornado, he had never seen a thing but palm trees and totem poles.

He sighed, and turned his attention to the Emerald Hill village instead. That was a bustling sight, something Sonic was grateful to see, though he wasn't sure he fit in there yet. A lot of people still blamed him for the events that gave him his colouring, and he had to rely on Johnny to put in good words for him. Sonic sighed. He didn't like having to build up a positive reputation again, it had been hard enough when he was small and cute. Although, he thought to himself, he probably didn't help matters by throwing strings of curses at people who picked on him. But they started it, he reassured himself.

Another thing the Emerald Hill lacked was things that he could dismantle. People there seemed rather keen to keep things with moving parts away from him, and the nearest Zone he could have pillaged for parts was the Chemical Plant Zone; both a considerable distance away, to prevent any sort of damage to the pristine Emerald Hill Zone, and restricted access. Sonic wasn't going to press his luck. Any parts he needed, Robotnik would obtain for him anyway. Not that Sonic ever admitted that the scientist's money and mechanical skills were in fact of use to him.

He was interrupted from his chain of thought by a small voice from far below him. Leaning forwards, he could see the figures of Johnny and Porker on the grass at the base of the rock wall he was perched on. Sighing, he got to his feet, and started sliding down the side of the cliff that was the least vertical. Until he started to run, at which he crouched, reached for the edge of the plinth, and swung himself to run vertically down the wall. At the last second, he jumped from the surface, flipping in mid air and landing with both feet simultaneously. He raised his hands into the air, and turned to bow to his admiring audience.

Johnny and Porker just shook their heads at the display.

Sonic grinned, as if he hadn't been deep in his thoughts before they'd shown up. "What's up dudes?"

"Nothing much, Sonic, just wondering if you're planning on actually coming back for dinner today?"

"Oh! Oh, right, sure I will." Sonic nodded. "Why?"

"Because whenever you're up there," Johnny pointed up towards Sonic's perch, "you are practically impossible to get down. You really should eat."

"Pfft, I'm cool Johnny! I eat when I'm hungry."

"Yeah, and if you keep punting the coconuts that are, you know, kind of a trademark of the Emerald Hill, into the ocean and whining that they aren't pineapples, no one will give you food when you want it."

"The Emerald Hill's trademark is this," Sonic pointed at the grass, "And those crazy flowers over there. Coconuts are disgusting and we can do better without them." He pulled a face.

"You named your robots Coconuts."

"That's different!"

"How?"

Sonic growled, but didn't answer, instead choosing to drop into a sulking ball on the floor. Johnny sighed, shaking his head again. Sonic was impossible sometimes. Porker held a small catalogue in front of the hedgehog's nose, and Sonic's ears perked up as he looked at it. The pig opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get a word out, Sonic had snatched the booklet from his hands and dropped to his stomach to read it, kicking his feet in the air above him.

"Oh my Chaos..."

"Y-yeah, look at page 15." Porker smiled as the miserable pout on Sonic's face changed to a huge grin again while he flicked through the pages.

"Ahhh!" Sonic laughed. "Ahhh! This is awesome! Totally gotta get one of these!"

"What have you guys found?" Johnny blinked, trying to look past Sonic's spiky shoulders to see the pages.

"Oh, I-I had that come w-with some stuff I ordered." Porker looked over his shoulder at Sonic, who had burst into ecstatic giggles. "Zombie P-Penguin action figures. Thought Sonic'd like t-to see."

Johnny gave a distressed whine. "Porker! I thought we agreed not to encourage him!"

"I-I didn't think it'd do any harm?"

"Dude, Porker, we gotta get you out that stuttering habit." Sonic chuckled playfully. "You sound like you're standing on a drill."

"I do not st-stutter!"

"C'mon Tumble, leave him alone."

"Oh shut up fluff butt, I'm only kidding! You know that, right Porker?"

"... I guess..."

"See Johnny? We're cool." Sonic closed the catalogue and got to his feet, stretching. "Right! So where's the food at?"

"At home, Sonic, like I said in the first place."

"Well then, let's go!" the hedgehog's stomach felt it appropriate to add its own opinion on the matter with a loud growl, and Sonic patted it pointedly. "Time's a-wasting!"

They all started to walk back towards the nearest chequered path that led back to the village, until Sonic decided that time wasn't wasting _that_ bad, and wanted to go along some of the river paths. Johnny was doubtful they'd make it back before dark if they walked the long way, and while Porker agreed with the rabbit, Sonic didn't. He sulked, folding his arms and tapping his foot impatiently. Johnny gave an irritated sigh at the hedgehog, who responded by pouting more. Porker watched them stare each other down; Johnny's ear tip was twitching as it often did when Sonic started being difficult, and Sonic's foot seemed to be tapping so fast that it might fly off at any moment; and the pig pressed his fingers against the bridge of his snout, turning his attention to the floor. He often left Johnny to deal with Sonic in these moments, the hedgehog had attached himself more to the rabbit than him, and besides, those eyes were such an unnatural shade of emerald green, they unsettled him when he had to look Sonic in them directly. Porker never admitted it, never sure how anyone would take it, but the teen hedgehog put him on edge. But, the pig guessed to himself, that was probably the case with anyone who'd watched their home get destroyed, then got themselves blown up. Or so it seemed in those comics Sonic was always reading anyway, Porker couldn't say he knew many people with that exact situation. One thing he did know, was that it would depend on whether Sonic got bored of the stare down or got hungrier as to who would win the stare out. This time though, Porker was tempted to interrupt. He didn't know about them but he was hungry himself. But before he could open his mouth to speak, Sonic's ears flicked up and he looked away from Johnny, bristling.

Johnny glanced over at Porker, who spent a moment looking in the direction Sonic was, before shrugging. Whatever Sonic had heard, neither of them had.

"Sonic?" Johnny ventured after a moment of Sonic staring into the distance, towards some of the waterfall cliffs.

"Shush!" Sonic swung a palm up to indicate that he didn't want to be interrupted.

"What-"

"I said shush!"

Johnny frowned, putting his hands on his waist. "Why?"

"Because I hear something, that's why!"

"We don't-"

"You don't hear it?" Sonic finally looked back at him, then at Porker. "... Seriously?"

"What are we supposed to hear?"

"... Never mind." Sonic shook his head. "You guys go on, I'll catch up."

"Are you sure?" Porker asked, getting a bored stare back and the hedgehog pointing at his red and white sneakers. "Oh, right."

"Promise I'll be back as soon as I figure out what it is guys." Sonic started jogging on the spot. "Catch ya in a bit!"

"Huh... Okay Sonic..." Johnny shrugged. "Just be back for dinner, okay?"

"Sure thing!"

And with that, Sonic leaned forwards and darted off, leaving his friends to wave dust from their faces. They watched him vanish over a small hill, before starting to head back towards the village, turning their attention to the easier to manage topic of what was for dinner.

Sonic slid along a soaked log bridge, trying to stop. It wasn't working, until his foot caught a knot in one of the trunks underfoot and stopped, while the rest of him kept moving until he ended up face down with his nose caught in a gap between two logs. He swore, loudly, and put his hands either side of his head and pushed himself up, until he released his muzzle from the trap. He rubbed the end of his nose, grumbling a bit at the sheer audacity of the bridge.

"Stupid thing..." Sonic looked around, snorting a puff of air from his nose to make sure it worked. "... Now... Where was that noise coming from?"

He flicked his ears around as he got back to his feet, using the ropes at the sides of the bridge for support to prevent another sliding incident. He could've sworn he heard music from the waterfall the bridge he was on was in front of. The music didn't sound like what he could sometimes hear in the wind around Emerald Hill, it had sounded more... Ghost-like, ethereal. But now he couldn't hear anything but the roar of water beside him. He leaned his arms on the rope supports to the bridge, looking out with his back to the waterfall and over the Zone in front of him, where the river below rolled away into the distance. Little dots of people could be seen far away along the river banks, if Sonic squinted enough, and flocks of birds flew overhead. All in all, Sonic thought, it was a nice day.

Though now he was bothered about why he'd heard that sound. Or if he even had. He started to make his way off of the bridge, heading along one of the cliff walkways. This path headed into a cavern in the cliffs, through which one of the multiple underground rivers around South Island ran, but Sonic had been through it before, so he knew there was a walkway through it too. Once he stepped inside, it was cooler, though not much darker; due to windows being cut out of the cliff that let the light in. He strolled calmly past the windows, trailing a hand across the wall below them. It was smooth, well crafted. There were rumours that people had lived inside the cliffs long ago, and the caverns provided evidence towards that opinion. Not that many people minded either way; to most the windows in the cliffs were just a casual feature of the Zone. Sonic broke away from the light area and stepped across a small channel that had been worn through the floor by a bit of the river that had broken away, before he started walking through the darker part of the cavern. The sound of the river somewhere in the shadows slowly grew louder, as Sonic slowed his walk to give his eyes time to adjust to the darkness. Even away from the windows, there was still a bit of light filtering through cracks or reflecting from the nearby river, which caught any stray light as water is prone to do. Sonic walked alongside the dark, shimmering, rushing water, as he headed towards one of the simple stone bridges that spanned it.

"... Hmm?"

He stopped again, flicking his ears forwards. There was a strange noise, he couldn't put his finger on what it was exactly, but it wasn't a sound he remembered hearing in that cavern before. Concentrating to hear over the rush of water beside him, he picked it up again; it was upstream. He glanced at the river, checking it was still where it was supposed to be, before jogging along beside it towards the sound. The sound of his footsteps blended in with the sound of the river, so if anything that made that noise caused trouble, it wouldn't hear him coming. Sonic bristled as he looked into the darkness ahead; this part of the cavern had far less light than the part he'd been in earlier, as it was deeper in the mountain. But the noise was that way, so, with quills on end, the hedgehog stepped deeper into the cave. The river bent around a corner, and the light diminished to a low sheen on its surface, though the sound it made betrayed the fact that it was still flowing at a tremendous speed. As Sonic followed the water around the corner, he slipped slightly on the soaked stone beside it, and was rewarded by a wave of cold water crashing into him the second he steadied his footing. He gasped and grabbed onto a notch in the wall, using the stone to pull himself past the treacherous bend and back onto some drier stones. He wrapped his arms around himself as he walked onwards through the dark, shivering and gritting his teeth, wondering if this was such a good idea. But ahead small balls of light were flicking in and put of existence, like fireflies. Those insects wouldn't be found so far into a soaked cave, so curiosity compelled him to continue.

The strange noise grew clearer, becoming a low thrumming sound that made Sonic's fur stand on end. It was an eerie noise to hear in the dark, lit by the flickering lights, and Sonic paused for a moment, trying to figure out what it was. A description failed to form in his head, so he glared at the nearest light instead. It vanished, then reappeared; a solid white sphere the size of his palm; before igniting in blue fire and vanishing again. Sonic shuddered, looking down the cavern at the other 'fireflies', which all, now he could see them closer, were more like pearls than insects. Once they appeared for a split second anyway. There were about five of them, Sonic thought, but it could've been a different number, since they kept vanishing from sight and moving. They all emitted the unusual noise, which Sonic might have thought mechanical if he didn't spend so much time around machines, and the hedgehog found it hard to look elsewhere than their creepy glow. But a small clatter down the pathway snapped his attention onwards, and the floating pearls vanished completely, sound and all. Sonic could've sworn he saw a flash of fur before the lights left, and a sound he remembered whispered through the silence in the cave left by the pearls, before being overtaken by the river once more. But the hedgehog had caught it, so he shook some more water from his quills and walked faster into the cavern.

"Hello?" He called, quietly. The river stopped his voice from echoing. And probably from being heard too. "Hello? Who's there?" He shouted the enquiry this time, but nothing responded.

Sonic frowned, stopping to tap his foot while he thought. He hadn't been this far into the cavern, preferring to stay in the lit area, and he realised it probably wouldn't be a good idea to go much further. Not without a torch anyway. Still, he wanted to try a little longer, those lights had caught his interest and he wanted to find out what they were.

"Well ready or not, not-really-here-dude, I'm coming to find ya!" Sonic tapped his foot rapidly, before raising a leg, ready to run blindly into the darkness.

Or he was, until a startled yelp echoed after the cry, followed by a loud splash. Evidently he had been closer than he'd thought. He was about to congratulate himself, until a spluttering shriek rushed past him, sending his quills bristling as he whirled to face the direction he'd just come from. Forgetting about the slippery surface and the nearby water, he dashed forwards and downstream.

"Whoa I'm coming dude!"

Sliding, he found himself rushing around the corner along the wall to try and avoid the rushing river. He had his hand extended to try and catch the person, and grabbed their hand, but lost his grip when a wave crashed up the wall and knocked him into the roof of the cavern. As the water ran back, Sonic scrabbled his way back onto the pathway and watched the hand vanish back under the water. His quills stood on end as he got to his feet, then powered forwards through the cave, jumping across the river instead of using the bridges in an effort to catch a glimpse of the person. The water curved past where he'd entered the cavern, but remained lit by windows in the walls. Using the advantage of the extra light, Sonic scanned the surface of the water, catching a glimpse of the person's ears or nose bobbing above the surface then going right back under, much further along than he'd expected. He ran faster, but didn't seem to be catching up to the little head; it was a kid! Sonic gritted his teeth and charged along the top of the tumultuous water, the momentary contact of his feet to the broken surface lifting fast enough to stop him sinking too fast. Until a rock that had fallen from the cavern roof long ago scattered the water enough that Sonic dropped under it for a moment. He grabbed the offending boulder and hauled himself up on top of it, perching on the precarious surface to get a good look over the rushing river. He watched as the kid bobbed along the surface, not struggling against the flow now. Sonic wondered if he'd hit the rock, but then a more pressing matter of the water accelerating towards an open side of the wall then disappearing made itself known.

"Oh no... A-ah! Hang on kid!"

Sonic looked around for a second, hoping to find something to catch the kid with, but resorted to jumping back to the path and running top speed towards the waterfall. A soaked tail disappeared over the edge, and Sonic sprang after it in a split second, all caution thrown to the wind.

The song of the Zone breezed past him, in harmony with the sound of the roaring waterfall, as the hedgehog threw his arms to the sides, plummeting head first down among the water. He kept his eyes open as he watched the air in front of him, looking for the child. The fact he still needed to get himself to safety too didn't cross his mind, only the rushing wind and water brushing past his spikes. He saw the soggy wretch falling limply below, and pulled his arms back behind him, minimising the resistance to increase his speed. The breeze sang around him as he reached forwards, squinting against the water in his eyes and seeing through rainbows of light.

He caught hold of the cub's tail, and swung him up against his chest, wrapping an arm around the drenched body. Now his thoughts turned to his own safety, that plunge pool was almost at his nose. Sonic grimaced, scanning the nearby wall, but finding nothing. So he looked to the churning water below, closed his eyes, rolled over so the cub was above him, and waited for the impact.

Sonic coughed as he sat up alongside the quiet, wide river. He was covered in silt and soaked from ear to toe, but otherwise seemed to be pretty unscathed. He groaned as he got to his feet; well, unscathed apart from one hell of a back ache. That was going to leave a bruise. But he shook that thought aside, and looked around for the cub, hoping he hadn't dropped him when he hit the water. The moment of concern quickly passed when he saw the child curled up a few steps away, with his tails wrapped around his body for warmth...

Sonic blinked. Tails? As in more than one? He must've hit the water harder than he thought. Giving a shake of his head he walked over to him and looked down at the cub. What did it matter whether he had more than one tail or not anyway? Sonic felt guilty for scaring him into the river anyway. He sighed and reached down to gather the fox into his arms, carefully, as the young Mobian whimpered at the motion. Once he'd got a secure grip, the cub nuzzled against the tan fur on his chest and curled up again. Sonic blinked at the sleeping child, before looking around for the nearest pathway.

Johnny tapped his cutlery against his empty plate, looking bored. Sonic was late. Porker finished swallowing the last bit of his own food, before eyeing up Sonic's plate briefly. He grabbed his napkin to wipe his hands, turning his attention to the rabbit instead. Johnny was resting his chin on his hand, tapping the side of his head with a finger. Porker sighed.

"M-maybe he got lost in the caves again."

"They're not easy to get lost in, they're pretty linear mostly." Johnny looked back over at the pig, who put the napkin down on his plate.

"W-well I don't think he'd f-forget again."

"Really?"

"... Uh..."

"Don't worry about it Porker, we'll ask when he eventually decides-"

"HEY JOHNNY!" Sonic skidded into the dining room, carrying a bundle of yellowish soggy fur.

Johnny made a show of putting his cutlery down neatly on his empty plate. "Glad you could join us, Tumble."

"Ahhh it was urgent Johnny I mean it!"

"W-what do you have there?"

"This is what I was looking for! I think he's the same fox I told you guys about ages ago!"

"W-why is he so wet?" Porker staggered as Sonic thrusted the skinny cub into his arms. "Whoa!"

"For that matter, why are you so wet? And covered in dirt?"

"Oh? Oh, he fell off a waterfall and I jumped after him but that isn't important, we should get him all dried off and stuff!"

"Sonic, that goes without saying."

"Then do it! Mind if I borrow your shower? No? Okay thanks!" Sonic ran off, clearly dinner had been completely forgotten.

Porker looked at Johnny as the fox wriggled, whining. "What should we do J-Johnny?"

"Sonic has a good point." Johnny looked at the young animal as his wriggles forced Porker to constantly adjust his grip on him. "Hold him for a minute, I'll go get a towel."

Porker watched the lanky rabbit sprint out of the room and listened to him opening a cupboard somewhere else in the house. The cub stopped wriggling long enough to give a gaping yawn, before opening an eye halfway. He froze solid and his eyes snapped open as he saw the strange pig, before yelping loudly and trying to wriggle free. Porker cried out for Johnny as the fox's arms, legs, and tails slapped against his own arms and his face, and Johnny came darting back.

"Hey, ow!" Porker yelled, trying to regain a firm hold on the fox. "C-cut it out!"

"Let me go let me go!"

"What's going on in here?" Johnny raised the towel and scooped the fox from Porker's arms, getting rewarded with sharp teeth in his hand. "ARGH!"

"What kind of a f-feral has Sonic d-dragged home?" Porker dived and grabbed the fox's leg as he let go of Johnny's hand to make a break for the door. "W-wait! We aren't g-g-gonna hurt you!"

"Let go of my leg!" The young animal raised his twin tails; still damp but visibly longer and more muscled than an average fox's; and slammed them down atop Porker's head with a soggy slap.

"Ouch!" Porker let go of the cub's ankle to rub the top of his head. "Th-that's gonna bruise!"

Johnny jumped over the downed pig and made his own grab for the fox, who bounced backwards with a spin of his tails pulling him further than the single jump should have. "Hey! We're just trying to help you!"

"I don't need your help!" The fox ran out of the room, and yelped loudly. "Let me go you guys are cheating!"

"Wow I think I've heard that line before." Sonic walked back into the room, wetter than before but not dirty any more, obviously having just come out the shower. He held the cub up by the scruff of his neck; which made Porker and Johnny smirk because the fox wasn't actually much shorter than Sonic was. The fox swung punches at him, which the hedgehog ignored. "You guys can't handle things without me for five minutes can ya?"

"Oh don't get cocky Sonic, did you even know this kid's feral?"

"Am not!" the fox barked angrily.

"Hey, I couldn't just let him lay around, he fell. Off. A. Waterfall fluffbutt!" Sonic flailed his free arm dramatically.

"I did?"

"Yup. I dunno, I think you hit your head on the way off it or something." Sonic grinned and grabbed one of the cub's paws, wrapped in a tatty piece of cloth. "Haven't we met before?"

"... Umm..."

"Yeah, what's your name? You never told me before kid!"

"I'm not a kid!"

"Uh huh..." Sonic rolled his eyes. "My name's Sonic Spiritpaw, and these are my friends, Johnny Lightfoot and Porker Lewis."

"... I'm Miles..." the fox drooped, looking shy as opposed to the vicious he had before. "... Miles Prower..."

Sonic sniggered at the name, and Miles pouted at him. "Nice."

"Oh yeah, very funny Sawww-nick." Miles grinned back as Sonic took his own turn to glared at the drawled out name. "Put me down please, I wanna go home!"

"You live in a forest, tails-for-brains." Sonic flicked the cub's ear. "You could at least stay for something to eat."

"Which you forgot about, Tumble."

"Shush Johnny, I had more important things to do than eat!" Sonic pouted stubbornly at the fox. "So? Are you hungry or not?"

Miles paused for a moment, before nodding nervously. Johnny rolled his eyes. "I suppose you want me to-" he didn't finish his sentence before Sonic had let go of the cub, who promptly pounced the hedgehog's abandoned dinner, "-cook more. Um, you sure you want cold food, Miles?"

"Mmph dis fine." The fox had cleaned the plate in seconds, and looked around the three older Mobians gawking at him, ears flat back to his head. "... What?"

"Whoa, I think you just b-broke Sonic's r-record." Porker pointed at the empty plate.

"Yeah, dude, why'dya do that? I was proud of that!"

"You're proud of everything you do."

"Well duh, that's because I'm awesome. Obviously." Sonic snorted stubbornly at Johnny.

"Of course, Sonic, whatever you say." Johnny rapped the hedgehog on the head, then put his hands on his hips. "So, Miles, what happened that got 'mister awesome' here-" Johnny ignored Sonic's triumphant bowing, "-dragging you back to my place?"

"Um..."

"Oh you ain't gonna clam up again are ya Tails?" Sonic shook his head. "We toldya, we aren't gonna hurt you."

"Nuh-uh." Miles shook his head. "And my name isn't 'Tails'."

"But Tails is easier to say than Miles Prower." Sonic pouted. "And it's just a nickname!"

"You're making fun of me. Like everyone else."

"Oh don't start that! The Emerald Hill folk hate me too, I wouldn't go making jokes about you to anyone."

"Yeah yeah, I'm going home. Thanks for the food."

"Oi!" Sonic grabbed hold of the fox's scruff as he tried to run past him. "Fastest dude on South Island here, Tails. How far do you think you'd get before I caught you?"

"Let's see... Seven feet." Miles folded his arms sulkily as he glanced back over the table to count the steps. "Okay okay! I won't run, put me down now, this is starting to hurt!"

"M'kay Miles dude."

Miles walked back to the table and sat on the nearest chair, wrapping his tails around him and finally accepting the towel Johnny passed him. While Sonic settled for shaking the remaining water from his spikes instead. As the fox dried his fur off, Johnny grabbed Sonic's arm and pulled him aside for a private word, leaving Porker to resist the cub's glares. The rabbit stared down at Sonic, who yawned dramatically.

"So what happened?"

"I heard that noise, and went to investigate. Ended up in the caverns, found Tails, had to save him from falling off a waterfall."

"You hate water."

"Yeah, but I think it's kinda my fault he fell in in the first place." Sonic made a point of examining his toes. "I kind of snuck up on him, there were weird glowing lights, and I... Must've startled him or something because the next thing I know he was rushing downstream and I was struggling to keep up!"

"Sonic, when will you leave things alone so you don't cause trouble?"

"Never!" Sonic pointed at the roof to emphasise his point, but quickly slumped bashfully as Miles shouted through.

"Those were inari pearls, Sonic! They were looking for something and I was trying to hide from them!"

"Huh?" Sonic pushed past Johnny and leaned back into the room to look at the fox, who was making a tower out of precariously balanced cutlery. Porker was keeping his distance. "They were a what now?"

"Pearls." Miles didn't look away from the tower. "They were probably looking for you."

"Wait, what?" Sonic scratched an ear. "Pearls were looking for me?"

"I said probably." Miles sighed in irritation. "And it's not the pearls, really, but spirits using them to look into this world. That's why I didn't wanna be seen, they're... Cursed." The fox whirled and pouted indignantly, his tails knocking the tower over. "Why are you laughing?"

Sonic had collapsed to the floor, clutching his sides in fits of laughter, and was unable to answer. Johnny shook his head and responded for him. "Sonic doesn't believe in curses. Or spirits."

"Oh really?" Miles frowned at him. "Well I've seen them!"

Sonic managed to sit up, still chuckling. "Yeah, and I'm supposed to be cursed. But saved your butt, didn't I, Tails?"

"Please use my name!"

"No way, Tails sounds better."

"Urgh, fine, okay, just stop laughing!" Tails grudgingly accepted the nickname, and waved his namesakes in annoyance. "Curses and spirits are real, Sonic!"

"Oh? Well I've never had anything come from my 'curse'."

"Yeah you did."

"Well... Not recently! And besides, curses aren't real, it was just bad luck!" Sonic shook his head. "Okay, let's humour you for a bit. What sort of spirits?"

"I dunno, but you don't wanna be caught by them. They're meant to eat your souls!"

Sonic stifled another sarcastic snigger, and tilted his head curiously. "Right, so how do you know so much about them? I don't suppose there's some spooky witchcraft school in your forest." Sonic wiggled his fingers spookily, and was rewarded with a nudge from Johnny's foot. "Cool your jets Johnny! I'm just playing!"

"Stop picking on him."

"I'm not!"

"You are." Johnny looked over at Tails. "Listen, Sonic's still a bit hyper, he doesn't mean to wind you up. How about you stay the night? We can explain more in more time and I can give you something a bit better than... Those..." he motioned to the fox's makeshift gloves. "You can stay in my room, if you'd rather not share with Sonic and Porker."

"..." Tails looked over the trio, cautiously, as he weighed up his options. His eyes lingered on the markings on Sonic's hands for a moment, before back at the table. He saw the cutlery he'd scattered everywhere, and blushed embarrassedly. "... Okay... Um... I'll help clean up here..."

"That'd help, thanks Miles..."

"... I suppose you three can call me Tails... If it's easier."

That evening, the four Mobians took to discussing the events that had happened in the cave, and back when Sonic had first encountered Tails. The fox tried his best to explain about the spirits he'd met, with varying degrees of scepticism from Sonic. Johnny and Porker told the fox a bit about their jobs as technicians, but Sonic refused to talk about anything except for compliments on his powers, or what he thought about gold rings and comic books. It was past midnight by the time they'd all finished chattering and explaining themselves away in circles, so they made their way to their rooms.

Tails decided to stay with Sonic, while Porker accepted crashing on Johnny's floor instead.

"Thought you didn't like me, kid."

"Hey, you're a jerk but you're cool!" Tails grinned as he snuggled down under the blanket, where he lay on a broad shelf at his own insistence. "Besides, you're a mystery!"

"Heh, I try." Sonic raised a thumb at him, smiling as he dozed into the pillow on the bed. "You like your ghost stories?"

"Yeah... I've heard more than you'll ever hear!"

"Oh really?" Sonic sat up, leaning on his elbows. "From listening to tourists and stuff at the docks, right?"

"Uh huh." Tails rolled over and smiled at him. "I get them from all over the world!"

"Prove it!"

"Okay." The fox took a moment to rack his mind for a good one, then nodded. "Well, it's not a ghost story exactly, but have you ever heard of the Angel Islands?"

"Dude, those are a myth!"

"So? Wanna hear a story about them?"

"Heck yeah!"

"Legends say, long ago, there were two advanced races of Echidna, that lived in an island in the sky..." began Tails, regaling one of his favourite stories to the hedgehog.

They had only just fallen asleep once the sun started to rise once more.

-TBC-


	15. Before a Festival

**Blue Star **

Part 15: Before a Festival

Sonic stretched out in the chain and fabric hammock on the sky deck of the Gold Star, yawning. The hammock was positioned behind one of the tall fins of the ship, so most of the cross wind missed it, but there was still enough that caught it to rock the mesh. It was why Sonic had insisted it be made of stronger stuff than the ones he lounged in on the ground. Further out on the deck some of his robots carried out general maintenance on the fins, using their prehensile cable tails to cling to holes built into the design as hand grips. He had returned to the air ship alone, and had spent a lot of time back there, repairing the programs in his robots and making modifications to various mechanics that he couldn't write down for the Coconuts to carry out.

"Sonic, my boy."

"Zip it Eggman, we discussed that." Sonic turned his face to look at the scientist.

"Now now, temper!" Robotnik stood confidently on the deck, unsupported by his robotic guards, though the oversized rabbit robots were nearby. "I was merely going to suggest that you take a break from your repairs."

"What does it look like I'm doing?" The hedgehog rolled back to his previous position, getting comfortable again in the hammock. He waved a hand dismissively at Robotnik. "Besides, don't you have somewhere else to be? Like your stupid factories and whatever other crap you feed that gullible lot?" The wave turned to a finger pointing down towards the deck, indicating the Mobians below.

"Oh come now child, you'd think we'd have overcome this misunderstanding by now!"

"Feh!"

"Sonic." Robotnik reached down and jabbed the hedgehog's shoulder with a flabby finger. "You have friends down there, shouldn't you go and play?"

Sonic swatted the hand away, growling. "They're fine. I'll go see them in my own time. Besides, since when do you care about my friends?" Sonic sat up, glaring. "What are you plotting now, Eggman?"

"I assure you, my boy, I am not 'plotting' anything." Robotnik shook his head sadly. "When I said I'd take responsibility for you, that meant for your personal well-being, not just for your actions. And you have been cooped up in this ship for weeks, you could use a nice long run to keep those legs of yours in shape."

"Feh, that's what treadmills are for."

"You know they cannot compare to real ground for training."

"Yeah yeah, you lectured me about the forces on my body and blah blah blah before." Sonic mimicked a mouth with his hand, before sweeping it back through his quills. "I managed just fine before your 'help'."

"Suit yourself boy." Robotnik handed him a palm sized computer. "Here, Jonathan sent you a message, something about a party."

"You reading my messages again?"

"Of course not, young Lightfoot spoke to me over the video system and asked me to relay it to you." Robotnik turned to start heading towards the nearest door that lead into the ship, after Sonic snatched the screen from him. "Of course, no one invites me to parties."

"That's because you're a jerk with no friends because you're only ever around these robots or shut away in your factories."

"Yes yes, good good. Well you have fun, my boy, I have to make my way to Metropolis for an important meeting. I trust you can handle the Gold Star without my assistance?"

"Dude, it's MY ship! I bloody well hope so!"

Sonic glared at the back of the scientist's head as he vanished back into the airship, and turned his attention to his screen. Emerald eyes scanned it for a moment, looking at the frozen image of the grey rabbit on it, before he pressed play. The video was slightly static, where it had been sent over the considerable distance to the ship as it flew above a place Sonic had never heard of and didn't particularly care to find out the name of; some beach on the eastern coast of some random continent. Sonic had flown over the unnamed beach in the Tornado once; there were large, round, stone columns precariously balanced on this strange one, and scattered boulders blocking almost every path; as if it had been ruined decades ago, as opposed to South Island's white sands and emerald palm trees. Sonic, on the whole, preferred the Emerald Hill's beach to the ruins the Gold Star was flying over. Johnny's face on the screen was cheerful enough, and behind him Sonic could see several people, including Porker, dashing around carrying boxes. Sonic had to perk his ears forward to hear the voice from the tinny speakers on the device, but the rabbit sounded calmer than the rest of the cacophony behind him.

"Hey Sonic, I asked Doctor Robotnik to pass this on to you, so don't be so paranoid if you have it!" Johnny laughed, motioning behind him. "You can see we're all busy down here-"

"Yeah, and you could be helping mister!" A strange voice interrupted him, Sonic thought it was probably a girl but it was hard to tell through the bad speakers.

"Yes, I'll be there in a moment!" Johnny smiled at someone off screen, then turned his attention back to the camera. "We're setting up for a big party down here, it's a festival celebrating one of the biggest legends about South Island that the Emerald Hill has kept for centuries. It's hard to explain over this thing, so you should totally come along! Pretty sure you'll like it, and believe me, you'll fit right in!"

"That better not be a joke at my expense, Johnny." Sonic muttered.

"Not to mention I think it's a story you'll be interested in. And there'll be food and drink too, so yeah. It starts tomorrow, so you might wanna start heading back if you wanna come along!" Johnny nodded, and reached forwards under the camera to what Sonic assumed was the keyboard. "So we'll see you here I guess! Right, I have to help with the preparations so I better go. Bye Sonic!"

The video cut off, and Sonic tucked the screen into the hammock beside him. What was this festival Johnny was on about? He couldn't remember if the rabbit had mentioned it to him before or not, but it sounded interesting, if he would 'fit right in'. Sonic shook his head. Unless it was about rainbow coloured animals being normal, he was pretty sure he'd never fit in. But he did love a party. And Johnny had said something about food.

Sonic looked up as the nearby door slid open again, and Robotnik walked out, followed by his bodyguards, which were carrying large boxes in their short arms. Sonic raised an eyebrow at them as they bounced down the deck, and his Coconuts robots had to scatter out of their path. One day, he decided, he'd dismantle the huge machines and find out how they worked. He looked back at Robotnik as the scientist strolled past after the Splats robots.

"Oi, you better not burn the deck again when you take off in that thing." Sonic pointed at the red and black jet at the end of the deck, it dwarfed the Tornado. Or it would have, if Sonic hadn't moved his biplane to the front of the Gold Star and out the jet's way.

"Remember, my boy, I've installed the blast plate now. It should be fine."

"You're taking those creepy rabbits with you?"

Robotnik chuckled, which made his moustache quiver. "Of course I am. I cannot take the risk that you would bore yourself and take them apart." He said, as if he'd read Sonic's thoughts.

"I could put them back together."

"We both know you would not. Do not treat me as a fool, Sonic." Robotnik patted the top of the hedgehog's head, brushing the blue fur into order, and Sonic stiffened, his quills bristling at the contact. "I shall see you soon, my boy. Do enjoy yourself in my absence."

Robotnik made his way over to his jet, and Sonic shook his quills back into a disorganised mess. If Robotnik had got some loose spikes in his hand from the effort, he hadn't made a show of it. Sonic grumbled at the thick gloves he knew the human wore. He watched the jet's engines warm up, and slouched back in his hammock as the aircraft rocketed away from the Gold Star, the raised plate behind it ensuring the flames from the engine were sent backwards; the jet was facing towards the side of the ship, so the flames were blown to the rear instead of back over the plane again.

Sonic waited for it to vanish into the distance, before he grabbed the screen from beside him and rolled out of the hammock. He made his way along the sky deck, to the entrance nearest the bridge. A simple trip down an elevator Robotnik had installed let him directly into the bridge, where Sonic dropped into his chair and spun it around, taking in the room.

"Coconuts! Take us to South Island!" He said dramatically, while inputting co-ordinates manually on his console and getting to his feet to dart over to the controls. "I got a party to get to!"

Johnny waved the next morning, as Sonic landed the Tornado in a field a short distance from the village. Porker was standing next to the rabbit, concentrating more on the imposing shape of the Gold Star floating overhead. He tapped a finger on his chin thoughtfully as Sonic jumped from the cockpit of the Tornado and tackled Johnny to the ground.

"Hey there fluff butt! Where's the party?" He grinned.

"Hi Sonic. How about you get off of me and we can explain about it?"

"Hmm," Sonic mused, "okay then!"

"Sonic?" Porker mumbled. "H-have you thought about how much f-fuel that ship uses when hovering like that?"

"Uh, yeah?" Sonic let Johnny get to his feet, while he stood between the two taller Mobians. "You explained it when we were designing it. And helped come up with a fuel that doesn't pollute and stuff, remember?"

"I know th-that... But it takes a lot to make it and-"

"And you worry too much, Porker!" Sonic reached up to pat his arm. "I have a small refinery on board and it's worked out fine so far!"

"I still don't think you sh-should keep it up there s-so long."

"It'd take more fuel to take it off from a standstill, you know." Sonic shrugged and looked around. "Anyone seen Tails this week?"

"Afraid not, Sonic." Johnny said, shaking his head. "No one's really seen him since you went back to the Gold Star. What have you been up to up there anyway?"

"Just lots of maintenance, and making sure Eggman keeps his mitts off my stuff." Sonic snorted.

"Come on, we'll go to my place, there's still stuff to do and Amy will kill us if she catches us just standing around." Johnny laughed as he started to walk back towards the village.

"Who?"

"Just a bossy girl who likes to pretend she's in charge here. You'll know her when you see her, she'll probably shove a box into your arms right now."

"Sh-she can be pretty scary..."

"You're scared of everything Porker."

"Not t-true Sonic!"

Soon enough, the trio were sitting around a table, with a selection of brightly coloured masks laid out before them. Sonic picked one up and turned it over; an elegant eye mask that would have looked like something from a super hero comic book, were it not painted gold and adorned with fake red gemstones and two blue feathers. The hedgehog jumped up on the table, putting the mask over his face and bowing extravagantly at his friends. After drawing their chuckles and applause, he took the mask back off and dropped back into his chair, grinning. Johnny held up a similar one; a longer one that had a point which would taper over the nose, with green feathers and false diamonds on it. Porker didn't pick the third one up, preferring to prod at the keypad of his hand-held computer.

"So it's a masquerade?" Sonic flipped his mask into the air, before catching it again.

"Mhmm, not just any either, it's a huge attraction! It's why Emerald Hill's so busy."

"Yeah, I can't say I've seen so many people here before, what's the big deal? Don't they have their own festivals?"

"Well of course they do." Johnny tried his own mask on as he spoke. "But still, what better excuse to see a new place than a festival?"

"I think a lot of them are from S-Soleanna."

"Where?" Sonic raised an eyebrow at Porker, who hadn't looked up from his screen as he spoke.

"Oh, just a floating city across th-the other side of the w-world." Porker turned his palm computer around so Sonic could see the screen. "See? It's g-got canals and everything."

"Ugh, water."

"It's nothing like the L-Labyrinth Zone... It's all above water. It's just canals."

"Still water." Sonic stuck his tongue out in disgust. "But why would they come all the way to South Island?"

"Well, their Solaris festival isn't for a-another few m-months. They don't c-celebrate Chaos over there."

"Really?" Sonic took Porker's computer from him and flipped through it. "Huh. I said it before, I'll say it again..." he passed the machine back to the pig, "... humans are weird."

Porker turned the computer off and put it down on the table, finally picking up his own mask and trying it on; a disc shaped mask with grey feathers and blue stones. Sonic giggled slightly, provoking him to take it off again in a hurry. Johnny bopped a fist lightly on the hedgehog's head, and smiled reassuringly at Porker, telling him he didn't look bad. Sonic rubbed the top of his head and nodded, grinning as he apologised. He looked over to Johnny, who twitched his ears towards him as he spoke.

"So what's the festival about?"

"Ah, well, it's celebrating the Chaos Emeralds!"

"... Oh?" Sonic's interest perked up. "Oh really? Why? And why haven't I heard of it before?"

"Well, it's not held very often, something like every fourteen years or so."

"Ah. So if I ever went I'd have been too little to remember it?" Sonic frowned as Johnny nodded. "Well why then?"

"Not sure."

"It's to do with the amount of times an Emerald has been s-seen in Emerald Hill." Porker pointed out.

"So I might find one if I look?"

"Nope." Johnny chuckled. "The Emerald's only been seen fourteen times in recorded history."

"But I had seven the other year-"

"-Wait, you had the seven Emeralds?" Porker blinked, and Sonic nodded. "There are only six!"

"Nuh-uh."

"You didn't tell us..." Johnny raised an eyebrow, and Sonic shrugged.

"You didn't ask."

"We'd have thought-"

"You'd have thought wrong. I'm allowed one or two secrets now and again." Sonic chuckled, balancing his mask on the tip of a finger. "So? When does the party start?"

"Hmm." Johnny rolled his eyes at the sudden change in topic. "Soon. After sunset, you'll see."

"After sunset?"

"Well, that's when lights and fireworks show up the best."

"True!" Sonic was grinning madly at mention of fireworks. "How many do you reckon will be there?"

"Lots. People tend to camp out in the Zone somewhere."

"A-and come into the village for when i-it starts." Porker added to Johnny's sentence. "I-it's not got any h-hotels, as you can see."

"Oooo..."

Sonic dashed out of the door, leaving his friends at the table, and circled his way around the house, before jumping up to the roof from a nearby tree. He stood there in the afternoon light, letting the light breeze blow through his quills, as he looked out over the hilly fields, searching for glimpses of these foreign visitors. But something else caught his eye instead, and he whirled around, perking his ears forwards though it was far off in the distance.

"Who..."

"Sonic! Come back in and get..." Johnny stepped outside, calling up towards the roof, but stopped. "... your dinner... Oh man, now where's he gone?"

Sonic had left the village, with only the rush of wind whistling overhead telling the rabbit how close he'd been to catching him.

The hedgehog tapped his foot impatiently, with his arms folded, as he stood atop one of the giant stone loops. He could've sworn he'd seen someone here, but once he'd got to the hill the ring stood on, they'd gone. Sonic scoured the area with piercing eyes, looking for any sign of the person, until something hit him in the back of his head and knocked him off balance. He flailed madly on the edge of the loop, wind-milling his arms until he regained it, before whirling to glare accusingly at the girl rolling on the grass in fits of giggles. He opened his mouth, ready to snap an angry retort at her, but stopped.

"...Whoa..." he said as he dropped off the loop, forgetting about the uncomfortable object in amongst his spikes. He stepped up to the hedgehog in the grass, blinking. "Did you give me a concussion or are you actually pink?"

"Wahahah! Oh my gosh you looked so silly! Do that again!" The girl sat up, smiling light-heartedly. She was, indeed, a bright, rose pink, and her jade eyes were dancing with repressed laughter as she tried to speak. "And yes, yes I am, thank you for noticing~!

"But... Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you pink?"

"I dunno, born this way." The girl shrugged. "Not as interesting as why you're blue, Sonic!"

"... hmph." Sonic didn't bother asking why she knew his name. Most Emerald Hill Zone residents did. Instead he reached into his quills and pulled out a toy arrow. "Is this yours?" He glared.

"Yup!" The girl waved a small bow in the air. "Good shot, wasn't it?"

"You could have got me hurt." Sonic said, coldly, as he tossed the arrow back to her. "Bye."

"Ah! Wait!" She got to her feet and dusted her orange skirt down. "You're coming to the party later, right?"

"... Maybe."

"Well, you gotta help us out! We still have some decorations to put up and stuff, and with the way you can jump it'll make things much easier!" She giggled again as Sonic pouted. "Oh don't look at me like that, I saw you get up on top of that!"

"Who are you?"

"I'm Amy Rose~"

"Oh, you aren't the girl Johnny warned me about?"

"Johnny warned you about me~? Aww, that's so sweet!" She skipped over to him and wrapped her arms around one of his. "So, aren't you going to escort me back to the village~?"

"Ew... Leggo!" Sonic yanked his arm free, bristling at her. "Don't touch!"

"Aww, why not?"

"I just don't like to be touched!"

"Are you scared of little me?" Amy smiled playfully, clasping her hands in front of her and shuffling a foot. "I don't bite, Sonic~"

"Yeah, and I don't do being touched!"

"Well, are you going to help out?"

"I guess, maybe, just... no more touching!"

"Oh okay, I guess..." The pink hedgehog put a finger to her lips thoughtfully. "So... what kinda girls you into~?"

Sonic spluttered, face flushing red. "W-what?"

"You heard me!" Amy put her hands up either side of her head. "Or are those sails not very good at catching the wind?"

"Sails?" Sonic flattened his ears back indignantly. "Hmph! It's none of your business you nosy kid!"

"Hey, you're not much older than me!" Amy smiled, as if pleased she was getting on his nerves.

"Grr... I... Whatever! I'm outta here..."

Sonic turned to face the village again, jogging on the spot. As his legs got up to speed, he glanced over at Amy, and was rewarded with a sucker arrow stuck to his face. It threw off his concentration, and he tripped over his own shoe, landing face down in the grass. Amy giggled nearby, before running off in a patter of feet as Sonic propped himself up on an elbow. He pulled the plastic dart from his eyebrows, and scowled at it. He cast his mind over the other hedgehog's colouring or a moment, before deciding his next mission would be to ask around about it.

After all, he needed something to get her back for that mouthful of dirt she just gave him.

-TBC-


End file.
